(Death Metal / Old-School) Obscure Infinity - Dawn Of Winter - 2010, WavPack (image+.cue) lossless

REM GENRE "Death Metal"
REM DATE 2010
REM DISCID 870AD30B
REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v0.99pb5"
PERFORMER "Obscure Infinity"
TITLE "Dawn Of Winter"
FILE "Obscure Infinity - Dawn Of Winter.wav" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Summoning Of The Ancient Ones"
PERFORMER "Obscure Infinity"
FLAGS DCP
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "Sacrificial Ritual"
PERFORMER "Obscure Infinity"
FLAGS DCP
INDEX 01 01:16:50
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "Morbid Ways Of God"
PERFORMER "Obscure Infinity"
FLAGS DCP
INDEX 01 06:04:66
TRACK 04 AUDIO
TITLE "Foreshadowing Of A Coming Storm"
PERFORMER "Obscure Infinity"
FLAGS DCP
INDEX 01 09:51:44
TRACK 05 AUDIO
TITLE "Everlasting Fires"
PERFORMER "Obscure Infinity"
FLAGS DCP
INDEX 01 10:49:40
TRACK 06 AUDIO
TITLE "Incinerator"
PERFORMER "Obscure Infinity"
FLAGS DCP
INDEX 01 18:21:66
TRACK 07 AUDIO
TITLE "In The Depths Below"
PERFORMER "Obscure Infinity"
FLAGS DCP
INDEX 01 22:22:12
TRACK 08 AUDIO
TITLE "The Firmament Breathes Eternal Tranquillity"
PERFORMER "Obscure Infinity"
FLAGS DCP
INDEX 01 26:54:50
TRACK 09 AUDIO
TITLE "Dawn Of Winter"
PERFORMER "Obscure Infinity"
FLAGS DCP
INDEX 01 28:05:17
TRACK 10 AUDIO
TITLE "Wreak Havoc - A Blackened Mind"
PERFORMER "Obscure Infinity"
FLAGS DCP
INDEX 00 34:36:73
INDEX 01 34:38:73
TRACK 11 AUDIO
TITLE "Transmitting Life To Darkness"
PERFORMER "Obscure Infinity"
FLAGS DCP
INDEX 01 38:33:59

When you name your band after a Grave song from 1991, you play oldschool death metal. Sometimes it's that simple. Just as: je like death metal, start a coverband with some friends, at a certain point you have a few songs of your own, record a demo and in due time you sign with some obscure label (hard to steer clear of that joke), which is run by a few aficionados who release all kinds of well-intentioned records on the outskirts of metal that normally will not really be noticed outside of the 'home region' of the band involved. In some cases this is due to poor promotion by the label - or even simpler: lack of funds to do so - or poor distribution. In many cases it is just due to poor releases. All very simple, really. In this case... Well.
Obscure Infinity from Germany - not to be confused with theSwedish band from the early 90's - actually play some quite decent oldschool death metal. Nothing spectacular, just solid and honest death metal in the vein of Unleashed, Grave and God Macabre. Every now and then there are some doom, thrash or black elements to be heard and this results in a few more than decent tracks on the album ('Morbid Ways Of God' is an oldschool rampage and 'Transmitting Life To Darkness' stands out due to the black and doom influences). And I personally love - malicious gossip says 'simple' - oldschool death metal and all aforementioned bands. Even the bands Obscure Infinity mention as influences that I do not hear are very much to my liking (Atheist, Disharmonic Orchestra, Carcass). Why, why, why then is it not so simple te just review this record, give it a good rating and move on?
Ok, I'm not too fond of the vocals, but again, singer Jules actually does not do a bad job at all. His grunt does not really stand out, a bit too standard perhaps, but he makes the most of it by varying with screams and the vocal lines are at times excellent. It must be the sound then? Nah, not really. Yes, there is some room for improvement, but the sound actually fits the style Obscure Infinity play quite well. Both guitar players will not get a reward for writing original riffs, but they might get one for writing catchy riffs that one 'recognizes' instantly. The melody lines are quite good as well. The rhythm section does not do anything extraordinary, does not lift the music to a higher level, but they do their job without much too complain about. Yet something prevents me from getting really into this release, which truly is a shame, because Obscure Infinity show they have excellent songwriting capabilities.
Maybe that is what is bothering me. The album 'Dawn Of Winter' contains a few songs that are potentially strong enough to bring a stupid grin to my face - which is a sure tell for oldschool success with me - but The Grin fails to appear. If I could rate solely on the quality of songwriting, Obscure Infinity would easily score ten more points. Maybe it's just me being spoiled, maybe it's annoyance over the fact that I think Obscure Infinity has yet much more potential than they show on this release, who knows... One thing is for sure, when I get the chance to see these lads live, I will be there, hoping to be convinced. And when their next record is released, I will be first in line to see whether that will be a Grin Causer. All the ingredients are there...

OBSCURE INFINITY was founded in the beginning of the year 2007 by Jules (vocals) and Stefan (guitar). After a short while Kalle (bass) and Oli (drums) joined forces. The course was clear from the beginning… following the vision to create authentic music without any modern-day influences and absolutely trend free. Based deep in traditional Death Metal how it was played in the early 90’s by bands such as Unleashed, Grave, Death or Asphyx, but OBSCURE INFINITY are following their very own path and add some slight Thrash and Black Metal influences to their compositions. All band members are enthusiastic metal maniacs and their devotion and passion for metal is easily recognizable in their music. In April 2008 the bands started the recordings for its debut demo “Into The Depths Of Infinity”, which was recorded in the bands rehearsal room with the help of Nils (voc/git in WEIRD FATE). At this time OBSCURE INFINITY recruited Flo on the second guitar. The demo got a mostly positive feedback from magazines and fanzine (sure the band doesn’t want to please everyone and definitely knows that these days the zeitgeist is something different). Since the release of the demo OBSCURE INFINITY did several live shows and is working on new material which are planed for its debut full-length “Dawn Of Winter”. Early 2009 OBSCURE INFINITY joined forces with OBSCURE DOMAIN Productions.