Obsidious – Iconic
Release Date: 28th October 2022
Label: Season of Mist
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Tech Death, Progressive Death Metal, Extreme Metal, Power Metal.
FFO: Obscura, Scar Symmetry, Necrophagist, First Fragment, Allegaeon.
Review By: Rick Farley
With all the sucky things that happened in 2020, literally no one at the time would have thought that three members of German tech-death band Obscura all quitting simultaneously would end up being such a good thing. Fretless bass extraordinaire Linus Klausenitzer, virtuosic guitarist Rafael Trujillo and unparalleled drummer Sebastian Lanser all left the band to continue on their musical path by completely founding a brand new one. One more focused on evolving progressive and technical metal forward with fewer boundaries, thus completely freeing their musical creativity. This tight-knit trio added diversely talented vocalist Javi Perera and Obsidious was born. Signed to season of Mist, the band is now set to unleash their phenomenal debut album, Iconic to the unsuspecting metal world.
From front to back, Iconic puts the world of modern extreme metal completely on notice. You could easily assume this would be a copycat of any tech-death or progressive bands that the members are or were previously associated with, but boy would you be wrong. Obsidious is its own creature and completely sheds the walls of previous restrictions. This is a hulking brutish, monster of individual virtuosity, giant grooves, and excellent song crafting. Guttural low growls, high cleans leaning towards a power metal delivery with symphonic progressive breaks and frightenedly heavy, but catchy riffs. Simply for the point of description, this is Obscura meets Dream Theater meets Meshuggah and then some. Iconic is the evolution of all these sounds, creating an exciting soundscape that I hope becomes the standard by which every progressive tech-death band is now judged. This is fresh, inventive, and accessible extreme metal, without sacrificing technical wizardry and brutality, which speaks to a variety of fans.
Chugging wrecking ball riffs of Sense of Lust is a head-bangers dream, the song uses synths and slow build to a speed metal frenzied pace only to give way back to the bulldozing groove. It serves it purpose of just hammering you with pit inducing hooks. Bound by Fire carries the prog torch with lead style synths and off time guitar patterns. Chunky riffs, low growls and blast beats pulverize before a huge cleanly sung chorus rings out over the emotionally powerful music. A fretless bass line slithers underneath a jazzy lead dividing the feel between brutal and uplifting, building on its own intensity, it masterfully reconnects the parts with symphonic proggy musicianship, leading back to the main structure. Iron Dust is harmonized guitars and fast licks with high level drum fills. Cleanly sung verses, have a feel-good style vibe, and hooky choruses shows the focus of straightforward arrangements. It’s also chock-full of virtuosic guitar solos and bass leads that show intricacy and complexity within its grace. The obnoxious heaviness of I Am is nothing short of a fierce eradication. A deadly groove with low growls and synth choir hits, creates a dark, menacing atmosphere. A dreamy bass run leads to a beautiful solo full of outpouring emotion. The moods of the track shift frequently between tenebrous, imposing, and serene effortlessly.
I could go on and on about the brilliance of this album. Javi’s full toned growling and rich clean voice, the warm fretless slinkiness of the bass creating low end as well as mind-blowing runs, the unique mechanical beats with insanely sick fills that instinctively fit the songs or the physics defying technical guitar work with an eye for heavy groove. All of these things plus the complexity that shifts between genres fluently and intricately woven song crafting makes this the best debut album I’ve heard all year. Obsidious checks all the important boxes that make an album great and revered by a number of distinctive styles of fanbases. Iconic will undoubtedly sit somewhere on my end of the year list and will surely be on yours too. 
(5 / 5)
