OBTEST — Gyvybes medis (review)

OBTEST — Gyvybes medis album cover Album · 2008 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
nihq
My initial thoughts on this Obtest album were ”can it get any more mediocre?” – yet, for some reason, I kept returning to it. There is very little on display that immediately hooks the listener, except maybe the catchy chorus bit of the first track. The music in question conglomerates a variety of styles – traditional heavy metal, black metal, some folk, and even a bit of thrashy aggression – without falling under any precise genre tag. It is hard to tell where the BM sound ends and heavy metal begins because the band has, over the years, become very adept at fusing these influences together seamlessly. The work is so devoid of typical genre clichés that this further complicates classification.

It takes time to get acquainted to the overall soundscape. The good impression is made over a span of a dozen listens, and undoubtedly many listeners will never get that far. In a world full of music, why invest your time in this? One reason would be the careful and surprisingly intricate songwriting style. If I were to summarize Obtest, I would bluntly call it the band that creates good songs out of mediocre riffs. On their own, many of the ideas in the songs are either palpably bad or merely forgettable, but when fused with the right things before and after, simple power chord strumming is suddenly the most wondrous thing in the world. This happens a lot on Gyvybes Medis and is often complemented with tasteful lead guitars and solos which add tremendously to the atmosphere of the album.

Although I briefly mentioned folk in the opening paragraph, and even though the band is often lumped under the eerily vague “pagan metal” quasi-genre, it must be stressed that Obtest is light years away from the Finntroll lot. Melody on the album is entirely based on guitars, with no synths or native instruments used, and as I previously hinted, the stylistic mix is so tightly woven that there are no overt campfire moments. This is not like Arkona (Rus) who manage to use approx. 75 variations of that same “Perun’s Celestial Silver” intro riff on every album and make a career out of it. Beating that dead horse is so commonplace nowadays in “folk” metal that it warrants special attention if a band does not do it.

If I were to mention one negative aspect about Gyvybes Medis, it would have to be the vocals. They deliver a good raspy sound somewhere halfway between black metal gurgling and plain singing, but the monotony turns somewhat irritating during the course of 43 minutes. The vocalist never takes a turn towards a more evil sound, nor does he stray into clean vocal territory except at a few odd spots. This is either a bad compromise or simple indifference about vocal arrangements.

Despite the dull vocals, I recommend this to anyone with a spare week on their hands.

(originally written for Metal Archives)
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Human Rosin Melodic Metalcore
HATE BREEDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Through The Hell Hardcore Punk
ENEMY 906
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lightmatter: Rebirth Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Eye Of Horus (Lightmatter EP Pt. 2) Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Galaxy888 (Lightmatter EP Pt. 1) Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Agremorta - Adrocitas (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 3 days ago
Agremorta - Ploratus Umbra (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 3 days ago
Agremorta - Vertex Membrana (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 3 days ago
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR - The Temple Of Curved Space (Official Track Stream)
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR
adg211288· 3 days ago
In Sulfur - The Gate (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 2022
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 4 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed