Citadel

Author: Primož Novak

Artist: Ne Obliviscaris
Label: Season Of Mist
Release: year_month
Length: 48:11
Rating: 4/5

Australian outfit Ne Obliviscaris gave us a pleasant surprise in 2012 with their debut Portal of I. The band stood out with long, complex songs, which admittedly aren’t anything special these days, not since Opeth arrived on the scene and gave progressive (death) metal new dimensions. You could say Ne Obliviscaris went for a similar recipe, only, luckily, with a different approach, so they don’t sound like a copy of every extreme prog band out there today. The band added an extra instrument to its long death/black metal tracks, namely the violin, which already stood out quite a bit on the debut.

Citadel, Ne Obliviscaris’ second full-length, is quite a bit shorter than the debut. In under 50 minutes, 6 tracks go by, and only three of them could count as proper songs. The other three are instrumentals, where the violin soloing stands out most, building the album’s atmosphere together with piano and acoustic guitar. But it’s the long songs that make the record.

The first long track, Tryptich Lux, the second part of the Painters of the Tempest suite, shows in a good 16 minutes that the band hasn’t slacked off compared to the debut. The band’s music has all the attributes they had on the first album. There’s the brutality, showing up in aggressive death/black metal moves, growled vocals and fast drums, while on the other side the band serves up calmer passages that on the one hand obviously recall Opeth, and on the other a few post-rock/shoegaze bands too. The violin may indeed stand out a lot, but both guitarists also show a great sense for melody, harmony and soloing. The Painters of the Tempest suite wraps up with the instrumental Reveries from the Stained Glass Womb, which, with acoustic guitar and violin, brings a breather after a long, complex and epic track. Pyrrhic impresses a bit less. Predictably, after an aggressive part it morphs into calm post-rock-style music that does build atmosphere, but it feels like the band sometimes stretches its songs out a little needlessly. Devour Me, Colossus (Part I): Blackholes, though, wins us over again. Over more than twelve minutes you can hear plenty of interesting twists, and the standout is the part with acoustic guitar serving as a bed for some exceptional violin lines. It also shows what the rhythm section can do when it plays in a lighter way. Worth mentioning here is yet another talent of the excellent violinist Tim Charles, who also contributes the sung vocals, achieving a nice balance between the vocal styles. The band closes the album with the second part, Devour Me, Colossus: Contortions, again a short instrumental with minimalist piano and morbid violin, which gives the album that final touch of darkness.

On their second album, Ne Obliviscaris mostly confirm that they won’t move away from their original concept. The listener gets long, complex songs with a hefty dose of extremity and epic grandeur. In the end, though, it all feels too short, even though the album ticks most of the boxes for an extreme progressive metal release. There’s still plenty to expect from Ne Obliviscaris, but they have a lot of work ahead if they want to stay at a decent level, one that keeps them recognizable on a modern scene defined by progressiveness and extremity.   

Lineup

Production

Tim Charles, Troy McCosker (production), Jens Bogren (mixing)

Tracklist