Alright, my beloved dungeon dwellers! We’re going to keep this one fast, violent, and sweet—because Obscureviolence makes music just like that. Unadulterated and unapologetic. So why take it easy when we’re getting hit with eight tons of pure lifeless iron? Refuting the Flesh is a pretty cool name for a short album, right? It even sounds a bit metaphysical. Someone might say it’s dualist propaganda, but let’s not get lost in academic discussion when we have so much mayhem in front of us.
In a way, there’s nothing obscure about Refuting the Flesh. Sure, it sounds like the darkest and most evil Death Metal you could casually stumble upon at the mall, but the ideas and direction here are surprisingly crystal clear: destroy everything in its path with pure hostility. There are elements of old-school Death Metal and Disso-Death, but they’re balanced so seamlessly that it’s hard to tell them apart. The easiest comparison I can come up with is that Obscureviolence sounds like a slightly more polished version of Adversarial. So yes, it’s inhumanly heavy, but at least it’s not recorded with a potato.
There’s a level of rancid, rotten atmosphere here, but Obscureviolence also borrows lessons from Concrete Winds—it never stops! The album continues its sonic assault to its final consequences, which, in this case, means obliterating my auditory system. I need to preserve my ears! Just like a sommelier doesn’t eat ghost peppers every day (and honestly, what a sad existence that must be). That said, I have to mention the obvious: this thing is short. It’s a fart in the wind—except this fart poisons half the atmosphere. That’s how vicious it is! Still, not everything is fireworks in this valley of hopelessness.
As much as I enjoy how ruined and relentless this album sounds, I wish it explored more ideas and possibilities. Obscureviolence clearly has potential. “Exodus”, for example, shows the band can experiment and stray from the brutality formula. Without that experimentation, though, everything risks getting lost in monotony. While that’s not exactly the case here, I occasionally wondered if the whole thing was just one long track with many twists and turns.
Just like Refuting the Flesh doesn’t prolong our agony and instead puts us out of our misery quickly, I’m going to do the same! Get this if you love endless nasty riffs combined with ungodly vocals and relentless blasting. It’s not something you haven’t heard before, but it’s also not the most common take out there. Am I being contradictory? Maybe. But you’d be incoherent too after listening to this on repeat.
Label: Transcending Obscurity
Release date: February 14, 2025
Website: https://obscureviolence.bandcamp.com/album/refuting-the-flesh
Country: Russia
Score: Rotting into a 3.3./5.0
Metal Eclipse Reviews 