The opening line of this album by Greek band Obzerv is a crude and failed attempt to shock us. It doesn’t get much better. This essentially metalcore album with tendencies towards sludge and thrash and old school death metal moments is a turgid affair. Musically it’s competent enough. The opener “Better off Extinct” saws, grinds and growls, and there’s the odd concession to mood but it didn’t leap out of the cd player for me even when it gets harder.
Obzerv have a good control of pace and the progress is deliberate but none of it is imposing. “Skin Me” and “Sewn Mouth” are at the sludgier end of things. I have listened to this six or seven times and I found that I really had to make an effort to concentrate on it, as prior to the last time I drifted away as a series of sultry metal songs passed me by. I saw wasted opportunities. There’s an interesting chant on “Enmity” which would go well with the technical old school metal but it’s underplayed, and the atmosphere is lost. “Fratricide” has Thrash Metal written all over it, and the riff is compelling, but the production again is understated. Moreover, it drifts off into a rather languid spoken section which needed to be reinforced to have any effect. The latter part of the track suggests meanness but the threatening guitar work doesn’t lead anywhere, and it just ends limply. “You Coward” again goes through motions which, although melodic in its way, are devoid of hooks and most certainly of excitement. The vocalist may sound angry but the fury isn’t transmitted. He fares no better on “R for Redemption” on which the slowed-down attempt at emotive vocals are just terrible. The riff’s ok, but doesn’t take us anywhere. It gets better as it steps up and would be even better if the chant which follows it were more convincing. “R for Redemption” was for me the best track on the album but could have been so better with closer attention in the production mix. “Reverence”, which closes up the album, is just a sleepy outro. It adds nothing to this paradoxically languid metal album.
Obzerv never manage to raise themselves above the parapet. As a result this work fails to capitalise on the technical qualities that are there. It’s just metal without originality or personality.
(3.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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