Obsidian Codex

I have to admit with a certain amount of shame that the way I discovered this band was because of the horrible news about the criminal activities of the band's leader, and that alone would have been enough to make me decide not to want to listen to anything from this band. But obviously if I'm writing these words it's because I did listen to it, and that happened because the nature and image of this particular album grabbed me. With so many people praising this album and its insane song lengths, I was tempted for quite some time to see what this debut from a small New Zealand band was hiding until I finally fell upon it. And to my disappointment, I was met with a frustrating album.

Vassafor's intention on this album is undoubtedly to create an incredibly dense and creepy atmosphere as he shakes the foundations of his own creation with his guitar playing, a sharp and heavy guitar that unravels through heavy and catchy riffs. I should love this in theory, some of my favourite albums work in a similar way, like Rev. Kriss Hades' debut, or Teitanblood's first two albums, although each of these have their own unique style. And maybe this is one of the reasons why I am unable to enjoy this album, because it is not exactly what I want it to be. Although Vassafor's music in this work fulfils the main objective I have previously mentioned, the truth is that it doesn't always end up resulting in something positive in its favour, the truth is that, I don't know if it's because of the exaggerated length of the songs, many of the segments don't work at the same level as others, so you end up getting severe minutes of pure white noise until a segment with a riff or an interesting solo finally arrives.

It is this inconsistency and inability to create a powerful and engaging wall of sound that drags this album down, and in the end it is all the particularities of the work that end up playing against it, the production and mix on vocals and bass is very buried, but you can tell it is intentional to go with the atmospheric goal of the band, and the production on guitars and drums is also muddy, but in part it works in their favour. The problem is that, even though they knew how to capture all the elements necessary for what they wanted to show with their music, they have failed to deliver the music as something that captivates or engages.

I think that the greatest exemplification of the album would be with the immense track "Nemesis", it captures this vast atmosphere, but it doesn't know what to do with it, lengthening in an exorbitant way a track that gets stuck in doomy sections that don't reach anything, the guitar work has punctual outstanding moments, with distorted chops we find crushing riffs, melodic leads and brilliant solos, but this is only a part and not the totality of an album that loses the focus continuously.

Obsidian Codex is frustrating because it could be more, it has everything it needs to make a great album in my eyes but it doesn't make the most of it. Its place is in the pantheon of "what ifs" with all that it could have done. It's still a more than decent album, if you switch off your brain you can become immersed in their chaotic and dark world, and some songs do embody the overall result that I understand was intended, like "Rites of Ascension" or "Makutu", but these, unfortunately, are the exception and not the rule.