UMUR
"Into the Vortex of Obscurity" is the fourth full-length studio album by German death metal act Obscure Infinity. The album was released through F.D.A. Records in March 2019. It´s the successor to "Perpetual Descending into Nothingness" from 2015 and there´s been one lineup change since the predecessor as drummer O. has left and hasn´t been replaced. Instead bassist Kalle performs the drums on the album, and the bass is played by guitarist Stefan, so Obscure Infinity are down to a quartet on "Into the Vortex of Obscurity".
Stylistically the material on "Into the Vortex of Obscurity" is old school based death metal, but with an occasional blackened melodic death metal element. So this is both pretty brutal and raw, but at the same time quite melodic and relatively varied because of the blackened element (which isn´t far removed from artists like Unanimated and Necrophobic). The tracks are predominantly very fast-paced and energetic, but Obscure Infinity can also play mid-paced heavy grooves like they do on "Grotesque Face". The musical performances are generally on a high level, and especially the guitar leads and harmonies are well performed and bring much to the music. The vocals are a combination of death metal growling and higher pitched screaming blackened snarling. The two vocal styles are sometimes doubled. There are a few clean vocal parts on the album, which are in heavy metal/power metal territory, and Obscure Infinity really shouldn´t have included those. It doesn´t fit the music and the clean vocals aren´t that well performed.
"Into the Vortex of Obscurity" features a brutal, raw, yet detailed sound production, where all instruments and vocals clearly stand out. It´s a sound which is perfect for the material. So upon conclusion "Into the Vortex of Obscurity" is yet another high quality release from Obscure Infinity (I can look past the awkward sounding clean vocals) and a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.
