Obscene – .​.​.​From Dead Horizon to Dead Horizon (Review)

This is the second album from US death metal band Obscene.

This is the follow up to 2020’s well-received The Inhabitable Dark and contains 32 minutes of new material. As a reference point for Obscene’s style, think along the lines of bands such as like Obituary, Death, Cancer, Bolt Thrower, Asphyx, and Master.

Once again armed with thoroughly old-school weapons, Obscene stomp through the musical landscape hacking, slashing, and generally causing mayhem and carnage. The band’s backbreaking groove is very moreish and just plain fun, while the riffs deployed throughout the album are definitely weapons-grade.

The vocals are likely to remain as divisive as ever, but if you’ve a taste for the idiosyncratic old-school delivery of some of the masters, then you’ll likely find much to get on board with here. Besides, the singer sounds more aggressive and caustic on these new songs, which suits the music nicely.

The melodic and dynamic architecture of .​.​.​From Dead Horizon to Dead Horizon has matured since the band’s debut, but then so has the surrounding musical foundations and the production values. Obscene sound obscenely good, (ahem), on their new album. Both in a sonic sense and a songwriting sense, this album continues the high quality levels established by The Inhabitable Dark, and actually improves upon them in certain areas. Tight and lean, (with the exception of the rather pointless, but perfectly serviceable, intro and outro), this is an enjoyable and well-crafted slab of classic death metal.

Very highly recommended.