In Case You Missed It: Nekrovault – Obscure
Don’t you all feel it’s hard to keep up with all the latest and greatest in the metal scene? It seems like there’s always something new coming out and when you don’t immediately listen to it, it becomes less and less likely that you’ll actually listen to it before it gets replaced by something new and shiny on your proverbial music radar.
This is what happened to me with this. Nekrovault is a relatively young death metal outfit from Memmingen, Germany and this 25-minute EP from 2018 is their first release. In my preparation for my personal Top 10 of 2019, I looked through lists of other metal aficionados and the demo …Encircles Us… by Khaos, who also hail from Memmingen and, in fact, share band members with Nekrovault, found its way onto one of those lists. As I liked the demo (seriously, check it out too), I decided to find out more about the band and here I am.
At first, I thought they played some kind of death-doom hybrid. “Embrace the Funeral Fire” certainly suggests that—for the first 2½ minutes. After that, they break out the spiked maul and smash that coffin. Tight riffs start playing, the tempo rises and the vocalist’s rattles from the depths of long forgotten tombs layer with each other to form a comfortable death metal blanket. Just when you get a bit bored from the monotony, they introduce well-crafted higher pitched riffs (“Engulfed by the Grave” is a prime example of that), switch up the growling with some blackened vocals, and then play some wonderful melodies, all without disturbing the beautifully dark and chaotic ambiance.
Ambiance is the keyword here. This whole record spreads an ever-creeping “wasting away” vibe and doesn’t once loses the listener’s immersion.
Obscure is a short, sweet and diverse package from a newcomer band, who obviously are seasoned musicians. It shows in the craftsmanship of the instrumentation. The production is on point and there quite honestly isn’t much bad that I can say about them. Maybe the “Ugh!”s, those feel really tacked on, but luckily there aren’t too many. From what I’ve read, they’re a blast live too, which is something I hope to be able to confirm soon. All in all, Nekrovault is a band to keep tabs on and I highly recommend this EP to anyone who is a fan of the darker side of death metal.
4/5 Flaming Toilets ov Hell
Obscure was released on Feburary 17th, 2018 through Ván Records, on compact disc, tape and vinyl. Digitally, it is only available for streaming on Spotify.
