Obsidian is the project and brainchild of German musician Sascha Pratnekar from Nürnberg. Originally beginning as a side project whilst he made his name in the Teutonic Death Metal scene, Sascha kept starting and stopping the project until he hit a real breakthrough with it. Changing its name from “Eyehate”, the working title it had since its inception in the early 2000’s to “Obsidian”, its current form now, Sascha finally released his debut offering. Let’s see how it does.
It took a few listens at first to get a feel for the album because of a few big, diverse styles at play on it. There is a mix of late 90’s metal with a touch of hardcore and punk and some small elements of crossover in the mix too which on paper promises to be interesting, but the main problem lies in the execution – can it be made to work? In a word – No.
Whilst there are some elements of this album which stand out – some terrific drumming which does sometimes go a little excessive/over the top here and there and some solid vocal work and grooves being laid down, the majority of this album is rather lacklustre. Whilst it may have the aggressive and in your face abrasive edge that punk, hardcore and crossover bring, it’s pretty generic and rather one dimensional in its delivery with everything sounding quite similar after a minute or so in each track. Each small moment of promise is snuffed out by an overwhelming sense of indifference and mediocrity, whether this is through a lack of ‘spark’ or something to make it really stand out… Or just poor execution and timing – some of the lead tones are rather grating and sound out of key compared to the track they are in.
Whilst it may have been a bold project, nurtured over time and crafted in a similar timespan to that of which “Chinese Democracy” was penned, recorded, re-recorded, re-re-re-recorded, mastered and finally released, this album doesn’t have the same intrigue which that album offered nor the diversity on offer through it. Instead it is seven tracks of a very samey mash of genres with an awful rendition of “Greensleeves” tagged on the end of the final track after three minutes of silence. If it was meant to be a hidden track, surely it would have stayed hidden?
It gives me no pleasure to throw such heavy criticism on someone’s musical endeavour, especially one which they had worked for fifteen years on near enough, but the job of a review is to be honest, open and to say something is shit when it is shit… And with that point made, I think you can guess what I think of this.
(1/10 Fraggle)
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