Obitus – March Of The Drones

So, March of the Drones begins. A quiet, tense intro passage.. No build-up… No sign of it ending… Fuck, this intro is long, and I’m getting impatient… Then, finally, Obitus go to war.

The bunker roof caves in as Sacrificial Abolishment explodes with thick, fast, rhythmic blasting. Hard, dense and aggressive.

This is a band who have not chosen to follow the pack: they whip up a variety of extreme metal styles to fight side-by-side, clad in Black Metal armour.

Obitus can evidently deliver fast, technical metal – but they also inject a high dose of hatred  into their song-writing. When this album reaches full speed, it’s like riding downhill on a sprinting bison – and there’s plenty of  it throughout March of the Drones.

Most of the tracks stray into so-called ‘industrial’ territory from time-to-time: sampled spoken passages with ‘ambient’ sounds, or rapid, blastbeat-riff stabs. Fans of Mezzerschmitt or Anaal Nathrakh will enjoy these moments, but BM purists needn’t cringe for too long – these diversions are used with restraint, and it’s never long before Obitus renew their blitz-speed attack.

There’s a healthy smattering of slower sections, which chew along with a more controlled anger – but always with the sense that the band is straining at the leash, waiting for the moment to start ripping out your face again.

A largely standard Black Metal vocal delivery completes the overall effect, but it seems a little restrained in the overall mix (though I admit I do like the resulting emphasis on the drums, guitar and bass).

The songs are both complex in structure and depth. Obitus have put a lot of effort into writing an opus of tracks that flow together to form one, long sustained assault – using every type of musical weaponry the band can muster.

This album battled with my tastes in Black Metal from beginning to end. But albums which appeal to me gradually over time like March of the Drones usually become favourites for life. After checking out their MySpace samples, I’m looking forward to being battered and stabbed by their earlier releases too.

MySpace

Official website

Tags: 2009, Eerie Art Records, Obitus, Sweden

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 at 01:26 and is filed under Black Metal Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.