Requiem For Oblivion - Hindsight 2020
Pennsylvania's Requiem For Oblivion are as diverse as they come. Since forming in 2007 the band have released a couple of albums and some EPs, and whilst I've never come across the band before, they appear to have a dedicated fanbase despite said fanbase lacking in substantial numbers. With an array of dodgy and amateur artworks presented over the years, the "Hindsight 2020" EP follows suit with their logo placed over an eerie, almost mysterious woodland setting, offering very little for aesthetic pleasure.
The EP itself has more black metal contributions than the band probably admit credit for. Whilst their social media cements the band in directions of technical death metal and slam, one could urge the band's titles into more progressive, blackened and drone dimensions. The tracks among this short record are infamous for their zig-zag tempos and haunting atmospheres, which often feel like you're tripping balls, but not always the good kind. There's simply no denying this EP is a complete mind-fuck in the way that it's expressed. Often there is so much going on and then a minute later the ambient droning aspect is introduced and everything becomes a hallucinogenic-nightmarish trance. The soft chanted and spoken vocals battle gurgle and ghoulish screams, often becoming so much of a blur as it happens throughout the EP.
Despite less than thirty minutes in total, the EP tends to drag. Created solely for the dedicated listener of a lack of melody and structure, that's not to say this release is at all terrible, but it's entrance fee is that of a unique taste to extreme music. And whilst you might be familiar with extremities within the death metal realms, I'd argue that this something different entirely from that what you'd expect to tolerate, with a definitive purpose to entice, yet also confuse its listeners within a vast perplexity of progressive metal fused with the momentous of heavier music.
3 / 5 STARS
The EP itself has more black metal contributions than the band probably admit credit for. Whilst their social media cements the band in directions of technical death metal and slam, one could urge the band's titles into more progressive, blackened and drone dimensions. The tracks among this short record are infamous for their zig-zag tempos and haunting atmospheres, which often feel like you're tripping balls, but not always the good kind. There's simply no denying this EP is a complete mind-fuck in the way that it's expressed. Often there is so much going on and then a minute later the ambient droning aspect is introduced and everything becomes a hallucinogenic-nightmarish trance. The soft chanted and spoken vocals battle gurgle and ghoulish screams, often becoming so much of a blur as it happens throughout the EP.
Despite less than thirty minutes in total, the EP tends to drag. Created solely for the dedicated listener of a lack of melody and structure, that's not to say this release is at all terrible, but it's entrance fee is that of a unique taste to extreme music. And whilst you might be familiar with extremities within the death metal realms, I'd argue that this something different entirely from that what you'd expect to tolerate, with a definitive purpose to entice, yet also confuse its listeners within a vast perplexity of progressive metal fused with the momentous of heavier music.
3 / 5 STARS
1. Lies And Fire
2. Collapse The Structure
3. Shatterpoint
4. Conspiracy Bro
5. Esoterica
2. Collapse The Structure
3. Shatterpoint
4. Conspiracy Bro
5. Esoterica
