Band: Obsidian Kingdom
Album: Mantiis
Genre: Experimental metal
Social Media: Facebook/Bandcamp/Twitter
Obsidian Kingdom have had a difficult past of not being allowed into genre specific parties, simply because it’s not been easy to classify their sound. Although a lot of people would dub them, experimental, which is the lazy mans (and the best answer) for music that escapes us.
Obsidian Kingdom are having a reissue of their debut LP, Mantiis, released at the bum end of this year. This album received very little spotlight time during it’s initial release, which is a shame, because the concept of the album was very interesting. Very similar to GodSpeed You! Black Emperor, the band took a single song and divided it into 14 tracks, all of which showcase an massive amount of emotion and genres.
Last week, the band released a video for their song, Fingers In Anguish, an unsettling track off of Mantiis that slows everything down and, to be honest, almost feels uncomfortable to listen to. The vocals are murmured and the instrumentation is minimally grim; there’s atmosphere aplenty as the smaller sounds, like the flutters of drums and the strums of a guitar dance around the track.
The video itself looks like a compilation of selfies taken with an iPad or similar device, which seems to be a growing trend for music videos, but again, it adds to the effect. The vocalist looks equally as miserable in every shot, even if he is cleaning up that hair, but it works with the overall sound.
Not to mention that every sound on this track sounds incredible. A shape of things to come if you’ve never heard Mantiis in it’s entirety before. In other words, take the hint and listen to the whole album, or just wait for the re-release of this incredibly eerie and unique musical trip.
Music Gleaner 