My friends, I am thrilled to inform you that it is, once again, time for death metal. Specifically, we’re dealing with a particularly caustic and blistering brand of death metal from Minneapolis’ Obsolete, who are gearing up for the April 19th release of their debut album, Animate//Isolate. Now, when I say “caustic” and “blistering”, your mind probably immediately goes to thrash metal (unless I overestimate the power of my words, which is impossible) and you’d be well served by that instinct here. Obsolete are one of those bands who like to take the inherent aggression of death metal and splice it, just a tad of it, with the alarming alacrity (alliteration warning) of good old, piping hot, thrash metal. The end result is here before you in the form of the “Atrophy of Will”, which we are thrilled to premiere right here!
Oh boy. That opening riff is pure joy, especially the unrelenting drums and that glorious snare tone. Everything sound so crisp and well defined, even as the bass is set to shatter your bones with its vibrations and the guitars draw deep from the hidden wellspring of rage that is the lot of modern man. Further along the track, this rage explodes in a sharp, fast, and extremely well defined thrash riff. The beauty of that combo is that it alleviates much of the ponderous nature of the death metal influences at play here, sublimating them to extract the high-octane essence of metal that drives them. This is at one minute and forty eight seconds, for those who are keeping track at home.
That furious thrash section is, naturally, ushered in and overseen by fantastic vocals who do the work needed to wrap everything up in a neat little bow and prepare you for the double solos that are about to tear through you. OK, why are you still here? Go pre-order this album immediately right over here. It’s set to be one of death metal’s most face-meltingly delicious releases in 2021.