bonnek Obscura's debut stands far apart from their later albums, it's almost like a 2006 tribute to the early 90's extreme metal, with the exact same type of songwriting and sound of bands like Morbid Angel and Death. The addition of the Death, Morbid Angel and Suffocation bonus cover-tracks on the 2010 re-edition is no coincidence.

Fans of their later material should approach the album with utmost care. Not only is it a pure death metal album, it also doesn't have the best of productions, it's very thick and muddy, suffocating all instruments and with very upfront kick drums, which can get quite annoying during the frequent blast beats. Also the songwriting leaves room for improvement. There's next to nothing in these songs that will make them distinguishable from the songs around them. That's a common feature with death metal and one of the reasons why I am not too fond of it.

Good: the album maintains a consistently oppressive and bludgeoning atmosphere. Bad: it lacks personality and fails to offer memorable material. I'd say this album is decent, but only catered for death metal aficionados that want a trip back to 1990.

Time Signature None shall be spared...

Genre: brutal death metal

Obscura have been all the rage since the release of 2009's "Cosmogenesis" and the recent release of "Omnivium" has further placed them solidly among the giants of tech/prog metal. Their debut, however, is considered weak by many, and compared to the second and third album, I can understand why it is considered weak.

"Retribution" certainly is very different from "Cosmogenesis" and "Omnivium". It sounds like a completely different band. And, in a way, it is: with the exception of Steffen Kummerer, the line-up is a completely different one, and it is very clear that the creative genius of Christian Münzer and Hannes Grossmann has not graced this album. The style on this album is much more brutal and much less refined than on the subsequent albums(it's still somewhat technical, though).

So, yes, in a way, compared to the band's two "hit" albums, "Retribution" may seem weak. But, in itself, I do not this it's weak. I like how brutal the music is, without it being to much, and I think that there is a lot of really cool classic death metal riffage on the album, which is absent from the later albums. And many of the tracks are pretty awesome - especially "Exit Life" and "Sentiment" both of which draw on more primitive and aggressive old school death metal, combining it with influences from Death.

Productionwise, "Retribution" is less polished and more raw than the subsequent albums, but I kind of like that. Its sound is slightly reminiscent of the Scott Burns Morrisound production of the 90s (but more updated, of course).

So, yes, it's not like the other Obscura albums, but I do not think it deserves its status as "the weak Obscura album" - "the different Obscura album" is fairer. But, it is also fair, to the fans, to inform them that they will not find the progressive and technical Obscura that they know from "Cosmogenesis" and "Omnivium".

Fans of classic death metal might be interested to know that this album features a cover version of Death's "Lack of Comprehension". The reissue version also features cover versions of "Synthetically Revived" (Suffocation) and "God of Emptiness" (Morbid Angel, while the Japanese version also contains cover versions of "Decade ov Therion" (Behemoth) and "Wings" (Vader).

UMUR Retribution is the debut full-length studio album by German death metal act Obscura. The album was released in August 2006 by Vots Records. After the success of the band´s second album Cosmogenesis (2009), Relapse Records released a repackaged, remastered version with 3 bonus tracks in February 2010. The re-release features a cover artwork in the vein of the cover artwork on Cosmogenesis, while the original cover artwork features a more brutal artwork with a man being pierced through the face by knives.

The music on Retribution is death metal with what I would characterize as blackened death metal vocals. other than that there´s nothing on this album that could be called black metal influenced. The music is well played and semi-technical death metal. Most people will probably come to this release after listening to Cosmogenesis, but let me warn you that Retribution sounds almost nothing like the technical and semi-progressive death metal style on Cosmogenesis. The band have chosen to cover songs by Suffocation, Death and Morbid Angel on the album, and those three bands are actually pretty good references, when trying to describe the music. Great tight musicianship, brutal yet memorable songwriting and a good powerful production are some of the words I would use describing Retribution. In the end it´s not the most unique death metal album I´ve heard, but still enjoyable on occassion. The Relapse Records re-release is pretty surely a reaction to the success of Cosmogenesis, because if it wasn´t for the success of that album, I´m not sure many people would ever have heard about Retribution. So somewhere between a 3 and a 3.5 star rating is fair IMO.