Tómarúm - Beyond Obsidian Euphoria

Tómarúm – Beyond Obsidian Euphoria
Release Date: 4th April 2025
Label: Prosthetic Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Technical Death Metal, Atmospheric Black Metal, Progressive Metal, Blackened Death Metal.
FFO: Voices, Fractal Universe, Lunar Chamber, Warforged, First Fragment, Ne Obliviscaris, Dawn of Ouroboros.
Review By: Mark Young

Well, I might as well give up playing the guitar because I could practice for a million years and not be able to pull some of the virtuoso stunts that are on display here. It also poses another question: When is it too technical that it becomes an exercise in technical ability over feeling and emotion?

But enough pondering, Beyond Obsidian Euphoria is the second release from Tómarúm and the press that accompanies this release notes that it is a concept album that picks up after the events of the debut, which I guess makes this a sequel? In any event, if there is one thing that fills me with dread it is a concept album. And now, I’m faced with a sequel.

Jumping straight into this, there is no doubt that this is a band that writes and records music to a specific set of rules. Yes, that technical prowess I mentioned earlier is on display as well as song lengths that run longer than is possibly necessary, but they are tempered by actually having a soul in there. This isn’t a cold or sterile experience; it fully embraces you as the listener to come and share in their journey and their triumph as they unleash all manner of spectacular guitar-olympics. I think that in trying to focus on individual songs would do the band themselves a disservice, as each one achieves an incredibly high level of quality and craft whilst being hell-bent on blowing your mind. It manages to balance that urge to show off whilst delivering songs that you can listen to and as such appeal to those that are not overly fussed by the number of notes that can be squeezed into a solo. They bring all of the prerequisites first – rapid tempos, insane drumming and fantastic rhythms which grab and don’t let go. Vocals do the same and switch between black and traditional death metal growls with some cleans thrown in for good measure. By getting these right, they have basically earned the right to melt your face clean off, which they do. The best is that each moment is built to fit that song so completely so when they do take off it feels natural to that song. Check the end solo to Shed This Erroneous Skin for an example of how this should be done, it is absolutely spot on.

I posed a question early on about technical ability Vs feeling and emotion, where a band can display all the talent, they like but if the songs are lacking then it becomes just one giant lead break, you become bored and end up switching it off. I’ll be dead honest with you on this, there are some long songs on here, and I’m still unsure as to they needed to be that long. The shorter ones such as Blood Mirage hit a little harder, possibly due to being shorter so less time to get their point across, but what each song has is an incredible breadth that you might not be able to absorb on first listen. Luckily, the songs are that good that they will warrant repeated listens because they have written them with that balance between ability and emotion pitched perfectly. It’s the sort of album where you come away from it thinking that Halcyon Memory: Dreamscapes Across the Blue is your fave, due to that cut away halfway through where they go from full tilt to mellow and subtle. Another time, it could be The Final Pursuit of Light, which starts at a rate of knots and then decides it wants to take you on a 14-minute journey of discovery through different modes and times. In any event, the material here is top class and for me should be held as a yardstick for how to do this kind of music.

Anyway, go and find it, buy it (don’t stream), get merch and then sit and listen to it. Now.