# Obscura - New album updates



## chopeth (Mar 30, 2015)

"We´re less than a month away from entering the studio to record the fourth Obscura album, the first one for Sebastian Lanser, Linus Klausenitzer and myself. Ever since the new line-up has been announced, each of us has gotten a lot of questions about how the new material will sound, especially wether it´s gonna be more straight-up death metal, more prog, or something else entirely... So here´s our answer: it´s all of the above!

Steffen and Linus have penned the majority of the material so far. There´re shorter, catchier tunes based on Steffen´s signature riffing and lots of blast beats, which we expect to work great during the upcoming live shows. But the arrangements, which we all worked on together, also made sure there´s more dynamics, more intricacies like polymetrics, different layers of guitars and some new approaches to soloing.

I on the other hand, made it my mission to contribute something that builds on and extends the sound of the band´s previous album : very complex, dark and (for lack of better words) "prog". The result is the longest and compositionally most ambitious song in the history of the band - a 15 minute epic featuring (another first for the band) a string section and my signature fretless guitar work. We´re definitely excited to finally enter the studio and share the new music with all of you - stay tuned for more updates during the coming weeks!" - Tom Geldschläger

More details on the band's upcoming album will be announced shortly


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## Rosal76 (Mar 30, 2015)

I got the Email too. I'm excited. 

Chopeth, did you get the Email from Steffen Kummerer about him sending the Omnivium reprinted tab books with the corrections? He sent the books out a few days ago.


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## Thorerges (Mar 30, 2015)

Really stoked about this. For me Omnivium was a tremendous record, albeit with a little less dynamics than I would have hoped. Alkaloid was an incredible record, and Morean offers more clean vocals and leads than Steffen, so I am really curious to see if Obscura can one-up them with a masterpiece.


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## chopeth (Mar 30, 2015)

Rosal76 said:


> I got the Email too. I'm excited.
> 
> Chopeth, did you get the Email from Steffen Kummerer about him sending the Omnivium reprinted tab books with the corrections? He sent the books out a few days ago.



Yes, mate 



Thorerges said:


> Really stoked about this. For me Omnivium was a tremendous record, albeit with a little less dynamics than I would have hoped. Alkaloid was an incredible record, and Morean offers more clean vocals and leads than Steffen, so I am really curious to see if Obscura can one-up them with a masterpiece.



I love all this healthy musical competence between both bands (even if it's only in my mind). I think it'll keep on providing us fans with pure gems. Long live Obscura and Alkaloid.


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## Thorerges (Mar 30, 2015)

chopeth said:


> Yes, mate
> 
> 
> 
> I love all this healthy musical competence between both bands (even if it's only in my mind). I think it'll keep on providing us fans with pure gems. Long live Obscura and Alkaloid.



Amazing musicians for sure, however I am very skeptical of Alkaloid. Obscura are a young band, I don't think anyone in that band has past 35, Alkaloid however have some old dogs who have been part of huge bands before. Morean is 44 (even though he looks 30), and is a main songwriter for the band. Don't get me wrong, he is a super talent but you cannot tour forever, especially since the dividends are non-existent. To establish themselves, Alkaloid guys will have to tour a lot, something I don't know such experienced members will be willing to put up with. Tunker reaffirmed this and told me he has no idea what the future of the band is like, which is not necessarily a good thing. 

Don't get me wrong, I would want nothing more than to see Alkaloid as a fully well respected and globally recognized name in 10 years - but seeing the circumstances of the members, it might be a little difficult. Hopefully they can do some touring and record 2 or 3 more records, though. 

Also, I am a huge fan of Chris and Tunker - they're guitar leads on the Alkaloid record blew my mind and for me, this is their best work so far. 

Obscura however is definitely becoming a bigger band. They're all youngish guys who came from small time projects before and with Obscura, and now they're making the big stage. Not to mention, they have a very decent following and are pretty much atop the technical death metal scene despite being somewhat inactive for 4 years now. Also, they're coming to summer slaughter in the US, which is a very, very good move because they'll be supporting some pretty big bands like Lamb of God. 

Overall death metal has been very stagnant within the last 5 - 6 years, and besides a few projects here and there - it has been about playing faster and/or replicating previous efforts from the 90's. Obscura and Alkaloid are amongst a handful of bands who I feel are pushing the genre forward.


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## Necropitated (Mar 30, 2015)

Obscura are not as young as you think, they are all over 30 except Linus I think. I mean, half of Alkaloid was in Obscura. Interestingly, most of the bigger german musicians in that scene are all that age, just noticed that recently.
And what you're forgetting, Obscura are already quite big in europe.


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## Thorerges (Mar 31, 2015)

Necropitated said:


> Obscura are not as young as you think, they are all over 30 except Linus I think. I mean, half of Alkaloid was in Obscura. Interestingly, most of the bigger german musicians in that scene are all that age, just noticed that recently.
> And what you're forgetting, Obscura are already quite big in europe.



Steffen is 29, and Linus is 30. Regardless, Obscura don't have a frontman who has done so much that it might be too late for him. Who is going to keep rocking like that until 50?


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## vm27 (Mar 31, 2015)

Thorerges said:


> Don't get me wrong, I would want nothing more than to see Alkaloid as a fully well respected and globally recognized name in 10 years -


You don't want a new Necrophagist album?


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## Lorcan Ward (Mar 31, 2015)

The new guitarist plays a fretless and they've gone back to 6 strings right?


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## Fountainhead (Mar 31, 2015)

Guys, please stop it with the Alkaloid vs. Obscura stuff. There´s no competition or "one-up-manship". Very different bands with very different dynamics, which are both trying to make the best possible record under their respective circumstances, that´s it. I can see why people would like to see it as some kind of "duel" or rival gang-type thing, but it really isn´t. Especially from my view, where Chris and Hannes (and of course Linus, who´s now my bandmate in Obscura) are good friends and outspoken supporters of my work (and vice versa), there´s no competitive thinking whatsoever, only mutual respect.

The alkaloid album is ....ing awesome, btw and I´m looking forward to anything they´ll come up with in the future!


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## Fountainhead (Mar 31, 2015)

Lorcan Ward said:


> The new guitarist plays a fretless and they've gone back to 6 strings right?



not quite. Steffen doesn´t write much on 7string, but there´s gonna be plenty of 7 on the record, 7 fretted and 7 fretless


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## Thorerges (Mar 31, 2015)

Fountainhead said:


> not quite. Steffen doesn´t write much on 7string, but there´s gonna be plenty of 7 on the record, 7 fretted and 7 fretless



Excellent news Fountainhead, really cannot wait for this record now! I read your post about a 15 minute epic, I seriously cannot wait for it. 

Please do not mistake my comparisons between Alkaloid and Obscura as being anything more than just expressing the differences. I am a huge fan of both bands (and your solo work, which Muenzner compared to Steve Vai - which is huge), hopefully I will see you guys in America soon.


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## Fountainhead (Apr 2, 2015)

Thorerges said:


> hopefully I will see you guys in America soon.



Well, nothing´s confirmed ATM, but we´re planning to come to the states both this year and next year, so hopefully we´ll indeed get to see you very soon!


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## Thorerges (Apr 2, 2015)

Fountainhead said:


> Well, nothing´s confirmed ATM, but we´re planning to come to the states both this year and next year, so hopefully we´ll indeed get to see you very soon!



There have been rumors that Summer Slaughter will have you guys. It would be incredible if that happens, fingers crossed!


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## Lorcan Ward (Apr 2, 2015)

Fountainhead said:


> not quite. Steffen doesn´t write much on 7string, but there´s gonna be plenty of 7 on the record, 7 fretted and 7 fretless



Awesome! The fretless 7 is going to be very interesting.


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## Thorerges (Apr 2, 2015)

Lorcan Ward said:


> Awesome! The fretless 7 is going to be very interesting.



Yea I thought the same thing. Can't wait to hear this record.


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## travis bickle (Apr 3, 2015)

super ....ing stoked!! cant wait to hear what you cats have in store for us. im a huge fan of both obscura and alkaloid. whats better than having 2 imcredible bands pushing the boundaries of extreme music?


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## chopeth (Apr 4, 2015)

travis bickle said:


> whats better than having 2 imcredible bands pushing the boundaries of extreme music?



That's the point!


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## travis bickle (Apr 7, 2015)

chopeth said:


> That's the point!



absolutely!!!! we're all anxiously awaiting your output, in the interim im waiting for omnivium on lp to arrive.


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## Fountainhead (Apr 8, 2015)

Thorerges said:


> There have been rumors that Summer Slaughter will have you guys. It would be incredible if that happens, fingers crossed!



well, I´m not at liberty to confirm OR deny that, but....

Summer Slaughter Tour 2015 Hinting At Arch Enemy, Obscura - Heavy Blog Is Heavy


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## mcsalty (Apr 8, 2015)

Fountainhead said:


> well, I´m not at liberty to confirm OR deny that, but....
> 
> Summer Slaughter Tour 2015 Hinting At Arch Enemy, Obscura - Heavy Blog Is Heavy



That's confirmation enough for me


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## Thorerges (Apr 9, 2015)

That is huge! Hope to see you guys soon!


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## chopeth (May 7, 2015)

Steffen posted this on fb:







Ibanez AEW40CD-NT. Nice inexpensive guitar at first sight. Any good?


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## Rosal76 (Aug 1, 2015)

This was released on 7-30.

"We are proud to announce that we finished the production of our new album! The production was full of extremes in so many ways. All band members were working at their limit to make this album the best possible. 
Thanks to the mix and mastering qualities of our long time producer V. Santura our songs became even more powerful than I could have imagined. You can be looking forward to very fast and Obscura typical up tempo tracks but also some very new sounds with very detailed, atmospheric, dark and heavy parts." - Linus Klausenitzer


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## Thorerges (Aug 1, 2015)

Very excited, looking forward to it.


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## chopeth (Sep 6, 2015)

I don't know if my ears are ready for such magnificience


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## AliceLG (Sep 7, 2015)




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## Rosal76 (Sep 8, 2015)

chopeth said:


> I don't know if my ears are ready for such magnificience



My ears have been ready. If they release a guitar tablature for the new album, I don't think my hands will be ready. I'm still struggling to play stuff off of their Cosmogenesis and Omnivium albums.


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## chopeth (Sep 9, 2015)

Rosal76 said:


> My ears have been ready. If they release a guitar tablature for the new album, *I don't think my hands will be ready. **I'm still struggling to play stuff off of their Cosmogenesis and Omnivium albums.*



I'm in the same road, man. I think they are way over my level, but still keep trying


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## AliceLG (Sep 9, 2015)

I stopped trying and convinced myself that I don't really wanna play like that


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## chopeth (Sep 9, 2015)

I like to relax from Obscura tabs playing some Beyond Creation


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## Rosal76 (Sep 9, 2015)

chopeth said:


> I like to relax from Obscura tabs playing some Beyond Creation



Man, you know... I've been really, really getting into Beyond Creation's music lately and therefore, wanting to play their stuff. How difficult is their music to play?


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## chopeth (Sep 9, 2015)

Rosal76 said:


> Man, you know... I've been really, really getting into Beyond Creation's music lately and therefore, wanting to play their stuff. How difficult is their music to play?



Very similar to Obscura, that's why I was saying... I try to play No request for the Corrupted and Omnipresent Perception, without solos and still can't play a few parts, tappings and that stuff.  Maybe they are a little less intrincate and all-time-changing in their riffs, but I think both are quite difficult to achieve and the sloppyfest is sure if you are an average guitarrist as me.


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## Rosal76 (Sep 10, 2015)

AliceLG said:


> I stopped trying and convinced myself that I don't really wanna play like that



Playing/trying to play technical death metal or any music that is difficult to play is a double edged sword. When you can play it, you're on top of the world. When you can't play it, you curse the band for making music that is so awesome but too difficult to play.


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## chopeth (Sep 10, 2015)

Rosal76 said:


> Playing/trying to play technical death metal or any music that is difficult to play is a double edged sword. When you can play it, you're on top of the world. When you can't play it, you curse the band for making music that is so awesome but too difficult to play.



That is true, trying to play music that is so over your level might be heartbreaking until the point that you want to get rid of your guitar and never play it again. But there's a good thing about it. After weeks trying hard to play a few impossible riffs, go back to your normal everyday songs. You'll see you play them effortless.


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## Rosal76 (Nov 9, 2015)

Thought some of you guys might have a interest in this. According to Encyclopaedia Metallum site, the new album will be released 2-5-2016.

New album cover.






Song titles here.

Obscura - Akroasis - Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives

Pre orders for new album items here: Cd's, Lp's, t-shirts, long-sleeves, and guitar tablature book. 

Obscura - Obscura Prepare First New Album in Four Years; Launch Digital Tab Book - Relapse Records : Death Metal, Grindcore, Extreme Metal CDs, DVDs, Vinyl, T-Shirts, Hoodies and merchandise

Take note, there is a guitar tablature book for their new album. It should be on the right if you click the link above. If it is not there, you might have to navigate through their website to find it and/or just close the link and reopen it. The site is designed so that everytime you visit, the items: Cds, Lps, t-shirts, long-sleeves, bundles, and the guitar tablature book will appear randomly to the right.

Here is a picture of the book on the Relapse site.


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## SensesTied (Nov 9, 2015)

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Rosal76 (Nov 9, 2015)

Hey guys, here is a better link to the new guitar tablature book. I don't know what is up with the Relapse site link to the guitar tab book.

https://www.realmofobscura.com/product/akroasis-tablature-book/


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## Rosal76 (Nov 9, 2015)

New music from their new album. If you scroll down the comments, apparently guitarist, Tom Geldschlager left the band in early July.


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## Double A (Nov 9, 2015)

My body is ready.


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## Thorerges (Nov 9, 2015)

They have a new guitarist too. Fountainhead has left.


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## bloc (Nov 9, 2015)

Holy hell the new stuff sounds awesome


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## Thorerges (Nov 9, 2015)

Rosal76 said:


> New music from their new album. If you scroll down the comments, apparently guitarist, Tom Geldschlager left the band in early July.




I read that, I think him, Christian and Hannes seem to share viewpoints on being in Obscura. Shame, because Obscura is really an incredible project and Steffen has an incredibly vision, unfortunately I don't know what the future of this band holds because of this.


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## isomorphic (Nov 9, 2015)

Posting new music/album art at the same time they post ANOTHER band departure.

Sneaky Obscura is sneaky.


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## chopeth (Nov 10, 2015)

Thorerges said:


> They have a new guitarist too. Fountainhead has left.



Not left, Obscura (Steffen, I guess) claimed Fh was fired. Plus, if you take a look at his fb, you'll see he is not very happy with the lack of mention in the band's promo, to which Christian also replied sympathetically. It seems like Steffen is not a very easy person to deal with. Obscura is great to fans anyway, I have no complain. 

By the way, awesome teaser, I just preordered the book+cd bundle


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## Spectivum (Nov 10, 2015)

Is the tab book a new thing or bands do it nowadays?


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## Dwellingers (Nov 10, 2015)

Too bad about FountainHead - he was just starting to post here ...


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## anomynous (Nov 10, 2015)

chopeth said:


> Not left, Obscura (Steffen, I guess) claimed Fh was fired. Plus, if you take a look at his fb, you'll see he is not very happy with the lack of mention in the band's promo, to which Christian also replied sympathetically. It seems like Steffen is not a very easy person to deal with. Obscura is great to fans anyway, I have no complain.
> 
> By the way, awesome teaser, I just preordered the book+cd bundle



Didn't see Christian's reply, but clearly there's more to the story than either side is saying.


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## Lorcan Ward (Nov 10, 2015)

It sounds like Fountainhead left on a very negative note. The clips sound awesome, 3 months until we get to hear the album.



Spectivum said:


> Is the tab book a new thing or bands do it nowadays?



Bands doing their own tab books is a relatively newish thing because of the popularity of youtube/Facebook guitar cover videos. Before the record company would licence them out to a sheet music company to tab them, which were always awful and full of mistakes so a lot of bands will do it themselves now.


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## KJGaruda (Nov 10, 2015)

This gets released a day after my birthday. Best B-day present ever. 

Is it too early to say AOTY?


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## Rosal76 (Nov 10, 2015)

chopeth said:


> By the way, awesome teaser, I just preordered the book+cd bundle





I did, too. You know you have a lot of faith in a band when you buy the guitar tablature book for the new album that hasn't even been out yet. I am a little worried by the fact that Fountainhead used a fretless guitar on the album and if so, would I need one, also, to play his fretless guitar music. 

I am a little upset that the C.D. version that I purchased from RealmofObscura, "may" not have the bonus tract that is available on the Relapse version.


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## Thorerges (Nov 10, 2015)

chopeth said:


> Not left, Obscura (Steffen, I guess) claimed Fh was fired. Plus, if you take a look at his fb, you'll see he is not very happy with the lack of mention in the band's promo, to which Christian also replied sympathetically. It seems like Steffen is not a very easy person to deal with. Obscura is great to fans anyway, I have no complain.



He seems to be kind of a perfectionist who wants things his way. This seems to be common in tech-death, Keene and Suicmez are like that as well. But steffen seems more democratic.


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## Thorerges (Nov 10, 2015)

Also, it is funny that FH left so soon, yet his music is still being used. I feel Obscura is reaching a tipping point, Steffen might not have used his 15 minute track - but then this would set back the guitars for another year.


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## anomynous (Nov 10, 2015)

Sounds to me like he got the boot after they were done recording the basics: guitars, bass, & drums. 


Interesting that we have 10 songs, with two being bonus tracks on vinyl/cd. Seems weird to not just have the album be 10 songs straight up, but have to make that money somehow.


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## Thorerges (Nov 10, 2015)

Yea not too sure how I would feel about that either. But I think the band needed to get back into the scene and quick somehow, and even using an old members music would be necessary.


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## Double A (Nov 10, 2015)

Statement from Obscura about the split. 



We would like to say some words about all this misunderstanding. Tom Geldschläger was part of this album, and we are very thankful for his contributions. We didn't mention him on the teaser, because we wanted to present our new guitarist (new song material, new artwork, new lineup), but of course he is mentioned & credited on the album as made public prior to announcing the new album. 
The reasons for the split during the recordings of &#8220;Akroasis&#8221; in early July are hard to explain for someone who is not inside the band. There are different perspectives that you need to consider if you want to understand the situation. But we want to respect Tom's privacy so you won't read anything personal by us nor will we start any public discussion. We love making music, not arguing and we wish him all the best in the future. 
Thanks for your support,
Linus Klausenitzer & Steffen Kummerer


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## MrPepperoniNipples (Nov 10, 2015)

To me, it sounds like Fountainhead saw the teaser and jumped to a conclusion and posted about it without asking the band about it or seeing if it was some sort of misunderstanding and trying to sort it out.

Apparently none of the music featured in the video was written by Fountainhead. I don't think that really matters, though, still should've been credited.

Whole thing is kind of silly. It was dumb of Obscura to not credit him in the teaser, and it was silly of Fountainhead to make such a bold (and vague) accusation within a couple hours of the teaser being posted.

But Fountainhead apparently knew he was going to receive full credit on and for the album, his name is just not mentioned in the teaser. And he was apparently fired. As great as I think he is, this just seems like salt over having been fired.


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## OmegaSlayer (Nov 11, 2015)

By my experience I would say that if I had the guts to be dictorial in my band, as I wrote every single thing but I was democratic with decisions, the band would still be around.
Different bands, different people need different kind of approaches/management, there is no single good way of dealing with people/events.


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## Christian Muenzner (Nov 11, 2015)

Edit: After commenting on the issue I decided to delete my post again, not my position to argue publicly about the band. We're all just human after all.


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## chopeth (Nov 11, 2015)

Christian Muenzner said:


> Edit: After commenting on the issue I decided to delete my post again, not my position to argue publicly about the band. We're all just human after all.



Good move. It's definitely better not to say anything that could hurt people even if we have been hurt before by them and we are right about it. Everyone will sleep better not taking everything very seriously.


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## Bloodshredder (Nov 11, 2015)

I've seen Obscura with Cannibal Corpse and Fetus a couple of years ago. Incredible live band and surely a joy to tour with

Geil!


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## Rosal76 (Nov 11, 2015)

chopeth said:


> It's definitely better not to say anything that could hurt people even if we have been hurt before by them and we are right about it.



Christian Muenzner has said things that has hurt me and my poor fingers. Christian, from the Cosmogenesis guitar tablature book, quoted, "have fun shredding along to our tunes". I was like, "how in the Hell am I supposed to have fun playing this awesome but ultra complex, difficult, technical music?" 



I'm just joking. I love Christian and can't wait for more new music from him.


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## Double A (Nov 11, 2015)

The way I see things... I have no idea what happened and nor do I care. Crap happens and people grow, sometimes they grow apart. But now we have two awesome bands putting out killer material so, even if bad things happened there is always a positive to me when looking at things. Alkaloids album was awesome (besides the Dyson portion, at least for me, that was just meeeeeeeeeeh) and now we have awesome material from Obscura too. And if the new guitar player can play Christian's and Geldschlager's parts than I think Obscura will be juuuuust fine.

Pre ordered the new disc with the black on black t shirt. Beyond pumped. Disappointed that Fountainhead left but whatever.

EDIT: I also wanted to say the best show I have ever seen was Obscura in some crap hole place called The Cave (which is famous for having large names play there despite it's crap holeness) in downeast Maine on the Omnivium tour.

The place was so small and crappy that it was awesome. I think most of the people there had no idea what was going on. Hannes couldn't use his triggers so he played au natural and crushed it. Then my friends and I got to talk to Christian and Hannes afterwards because there was no place else for them to go but into the crowd. XD Pretty sure this show caused them to miss their next show though which is a bummer but it was seriously a magical live experience. Getting to see one of your favorite bands in literally an old barn.


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## Thorerges (Nov 11, 2015)

Statement released earlier by Tom:

https://www.facebook.com/tomfountainhead/posts/1231630243517627

Damn, why are tech-death bands so messy? Necrophagist & the faceless also had pretty nasty splits.


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## Lorcan Ward (Nov 11, 2015)

The videos being flagged and taken down is very suspicious since a search on youtube shows there have been lots of recent covers. Its such a shame how badly these things are handled in bands and it leaves a lasting effect.

The fretless guitar sounds so unique in places, really looking forward to Fountainhead's playing on the new album.


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## Christian Muenzner (Nov 11, 2015)

Double A said:


> The way I see things... I have no idea what happened and nor do I care. Crap happens and people grow, sometimes they grow apart. But now we have two awesome bands putting out killer material so, even if bad things happened there is always a positive to me when looking at things. Alkaloids album was awesome (besides the Dyson portion, at least for me, that was just meeeeeeeeeeh) and now we have awesome material from Obscura too. And if the new guitar player can play Christian's and Geldschlager's parts than I think Obscura will be juuuuust fine.
> 
> Pre ordered the new disc with the black on black t shirt. Beyond pumped. Disappointed that Fountainhead left but whatever.
> 
> ...



Dude, I remember that show! It was an old wooden barn run by some older tattoo-ed hardcore lady. And there was some guy that served fresh lobster for the band (although I didn't try it). That was a really cool show. I think I remember talking to you guys. And we were talking to the lady after the show, that Stephen King didn't live far away and that they shot Pet Cemetary not far from the venue which excited me since I am a huge King fan. And I remember that our driver saw a bear coming and eating out of the trashcans at night at the spot where our van was parked. That was really a special kind of eveing.


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## Double A (Nov 11, 2015)

Yeah, that is the place. I talked to you after about why you were playing the way you were and our drummer totally fanboyed over Hannes and had him sign his dvd.

Even by Maine standards that place is way out in the ass end of nowhere and I was really surprised you guys played there. I am glad you did though because it is easily the most memorable show I have ever been to. Pretty sure you blew a lot of minds that night, mine included. \m/


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## isomorphic (Nov 12, 2015)

Cynic
The Faceless
Obscura
Wintersun

all bands I loved a few years ago with ego-maniacs that have severely diminished my ability to enjoy their music

and this has all been in the last year.


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## Petef2007 (Nov 12, 2015)

Sounds like Steffan and Mike Keene run things in the Chuck Schuldiner/Dave Mustaine style of band management.

I'll be picking this up though. Omnivium to me is tech metal perfected.


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## Michael_Ten (Nov 12, 2015)

However these guys choose to run their band is none of my business, as long as we keep hearing good music.

I was so insanely disappointed when Obscura couldn't make Summer Slaughter. Hopefully they come back to the US for this new album.


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## wannabguitarist (Nov 12, 2015)

https://www.facebook.com/fountainheadmusician/videos/1013799328661523/

It never crossed my mind to use hybrid picking for some of those parts (not that I can play them ). Shame he's gone but I'm stoked for the new album


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## Thorerges (Nov 13, 2015)

Petef2007 said:


> Sounds like Steffan and Mike Keene run things in the Chuck Schuldiner/Dave Mustaine style of band management.
> 
> I'll be picking this up though. Omnivium to me is tech metal perfected.



Exactly, what an agreeable post. Keene/Steffen/Mustaine/Suicmez ran things similarly, at leas to me. 

And Omnivium was a perfect record, unbelievable.


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## Christian Muenzner (Nov 13, 2015)

Thorerges said:


> Exactly, what an agreeable post. Keene/Steffen/Mustaine/Suicmez ran things similarly, at leas to me.
> 
> And Omnivium was a perfect record, unbelievable.



The big difference though is that Keene/Mustaine/Suicmez really write the entire material for their bands for the most part and thus are responsible for the band's sound and success and their bands wouldn't sound too different with other members. Not the case in Obscura. Kummerer's input on Omnivium was very minimal.


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## Dwellingers (Nov 13, 2015)

Btw - when is the new Necrophagist happening?


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## chopeth (Nov 13, 2015)

Christian Muenzner said:


> The big difference though is that Keene/Mustaine/Suicmez really write the entire material for their bands for the most part and thus are responsible for the band's sound and success and their bands wouldn't sound too different with other members. Not the case in Obscura. Kummerer's input on Omnivium was very minimal.



Good to know. I still prefer everything Kummerer compose over last Mustaine a million times, even if that was only one song in all this masterpiece called Omnivium 

Btw, some of us are waiting for the tab books of your solo work, I think you said you would only edit the last album atm. Any updates?


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## axeslaya (Nov 13, 2015)

Cant wait for the new album. Just ordered the new tab book. I have the rest and am really looking forward to the new one. Christain, any updates or ETA on your tab books for your solo albums? Cant wait to get them!


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## Petef2007 (Nov 13, 2015)

Bizarrely, considering it isn't out until February, Metal Archives has all the lyrics and track times on their Akroasis entry, no idea how that happened.


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## Thorerges (Nov 15, 2015)

I never got into obscura lyrics that much. To be honest, being a lyricist needs a fair amount of work, and Obscura just isn't the band for that.


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## chopeth (Nov 16, 2015)

I don't think most Obscura fans worry about lyrics, there's soooo much happening to pay attention that I couldn't care less about them, but maybe it's just me, I don't care about 99,9% bands lyrics.


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## Lorcan Ward (Nov 16, 2015)

I don't think I've ever looked at the Obscura lyric booklets before. 



Petef2007 said:


> Bizarrely, considering it isn't out until February, Metal Archives has all the lyrics and track times on their Akroasis entry, no idea how that happened.





The release date looks really delayed or pushed back.


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## Rosal76 (Nov 16, 2015)

chopeth said:


> I don't think most Obscura fans worry about lyrics, there's soooo much happening to pay attention that I couldn't care less about them, but maybe it's just me, I don't care about 99,9% bands lyrics.



Me and you have a good reason not to look at the lyrics. We're too busy spending countless hours looking at the Obscura guitar tablature books!!! Analyze and decipher Obscura lyrics? Pffff. Maybe after I figure out how to play bar 27 for the riff from Celestial Spheres and/or those strange parts in the Velocity solo.

Seriously though, I try and do a quick scan of the lyrics every time I buy a new CD. I have found really lyrics here and there.


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## SensesTied (Nov 19, 2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNAqGrVrcMw&feature=youtu.be

New Video for Akroasis


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## Michael_Ten (Nov 19, 2015)

SensesTied said:


> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNAqGrVrcMw&feature=youtu.be
> 
> New Video for Akroasis



Jesus, those leads are insane. Obscura done stepped it up, broh!


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## MFB (Nov 19, 2015)

That 2:27 lead is great

My favorite thing about this so far is that the master volume is lower, so when you play it you're not immediately assaulted and scrambling to turn down your speakers.


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## Petef2007 (Nov 19, 2015)

I like it, quite a lot. It sounds a bit more Cosmogenesis-y than Omnivium-y to me, like it's the kind of song that would have come between those two records. 

I can see what Hanness meant though when he said that Steffan wanted to go down a less tech-y path. Apart from the leads, this to me doesn't have the whole "HOW??? WTF???" factor that stuff like Vortex Omnivium or Euclidian Elements has. 

Bass is a little loud for my tastes, and I can't workout if Linus is playing a fretted one or just a lined fretless. Tasteful playing though either way (and the damn instrument is massive). 

I'm curious what sort of input if any Fountainhead had on this one, or if the majority of his stuff is going to be in Weltseele.


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## Thorerges (Nov 19, 2015)

Fountainhead wrote the lead.


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## Michael_Ten (Nov 19, 2015)

Thorerges said:


> Fountainhead wrote the lead.



Yeah, I could have seen that coming. That solo sounds like his work, anyway. The replacement guitarist seems like one of those typical "I'm-super-good-at-learning-other-people's-stuff-but-nothing-else" guitar players, so I'm curious to see what kind of musical contribution this guy will make down the road.


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## feraledge (Nov 19, 2015)

I really dig this and even being an Obscura fan for a long time, I was afraid I wouldn't after the break up of the last line up. Sounds really awesome and can't wait to hear the whole thing. 
What really had me scratching my head is Linus's highest string being unwound. To my knowledge, I don't think I've seen that before on a bass.


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## Lorcan Ward (Nov 19, 2015)

A bit awkward watching the new guitarist in the video miming Fountainhead's leads. He must be an incredible player to step in and learn both Christian's and Fountainhead's parts but I can't help feel this is in bad taste. The song is really good either way.


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## Thorerges (Nov 19, 2015)

Michael_Ten said:


> Yeah, I could have seen that coming. That solo sounds like his work, anyway. The replacement guitarist seems like one of those typical "I'm-super-good-at-learning-other-people's-stuff-but-nothing-else" guitar players, so I'm curious to see what kind of musical contribution this guy will make down the road.



Yea I don't know anything about him, but he's 20 years old and probably has a lot to prove. Muenzner was 21 (I think) when he played on Epitaph, so maybe this would be a stepping stone for him as well.


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## Thorerges (Nov 19, 2015)

Lorcan Ward said:


> A bit awkward watching the new guitarist in the video miming Fountainhead's leads. He must be an incredible player to step in and learn both Christian's and Fountainhead's parts but I can't help feel this is in bad taste. The song is really good either way.



It is in bad taste of course, but given the circumstances I don't know how things could be any different. Whatever happened between Tom and Steffen must be some serious ...., because Tom just literally gave away a record, in my eyes. Most fans aren't going to know who Fountainhead is or that he wrote the leads on the new record, which is a shame.


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## BrailleDecibel (Nov 19, 2015)

SensesTied said:


> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNAqGrVrcMw&feature=youtu.be
> 
> New Video for Akroasis



Never heard this band before today, and I'm not normally into tech-death, but this is great!


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## MrPepperoniNipples (Nov 19, 2015)

The new guy is phenomenal. I think it's pretty dreadful to make assumptions about him before he's actually put out any of his own material (as far as I know)

Like Christian Muenzner, he is also a graduate from the Munich Guitar Institute.

Fun fact: He shares a name with a pretty brutal Latin American dictator who was assassinated in 1961.


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## Thorerges (Nov 19, 2015)

Dude is definitely a very modern player. So much emphasis on note choice in his playing.


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## chopeth (Nov 20, 2015)

MrPepperoniNipples said:


> Fun fact: He shares a name with a pretty brutal Latin American dictator who was assassinated in 1961.



A lot of people in Latin america do, such as Metallica's bassist, u know


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## Fountainhead (Nov 20, 2015)

Hey guys. Hope you dig the song (which I co-wrote and co-arranged - the 7/8 bits, middle/solo part and everything after 3.40 are mine) and my playing on it. Let me be clear on this: EVERYTHING these guys are putting out from the new album (the teaser, the music video for "akroasis") has my playing on it, even though they´re trying to give you a different impression. Wether that´s a cool thing to do, decide for yourself ;-) But as I´ve said before in my official statement, it´s actions like these which show why I´m much happier not being in this band anymore.

As for the tab-book, order if you want, but please be aware that all of my leads and solos (there´s 3 solos from Steffen on the album, ALL other leads and solos are mine, on the 15 minute track "Weltseele" - which I contributed - I am also the ONLY guitar player on the recording) have been transcribed by somebody else with no input or corrections from me, so don´t assume you´ll see the correct ways to play them. I´ve transcribed most of the rhythm parts though. 

*attention - personal opinion incoming:* Having neither seen/heard the final mix of the album, the liner-notes or the tabbook, I can only assume that the current trend of using my stuff without crediting me will continue with this. 

Also, I want to back up what Christian said earlier in this thread. There´s a difference between talent and marketing/mythmaking, you know. Just follow any of the past members musical output from the last 2-3 years and you should be able to draw your own conclusions...


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## Dwellingers (Nov 20, 2015)

The song is Fine. The fretless bass-sound gets old pretty quick.


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## OmegaSlayer (Nov 20, 2015)

Fountainhead said:


> Hey guys. Hope you dig the song (which I co-wrote and co-arranged - the 7/8 bits, middle/solo part and everything after 3.40 are mine) and my playing on it. Let me be clear on this: EVERYTHING these guys are putting out from the new album (the teaser, the music video for "akroasis") has my playing on it, even though they´re trying to give you a different impression. Wether that´s a cool thing to do, decide for yourself ;-) But as I´ve said before in my official statement, it´s actions like these which show why I´m much happier not being in this band anymore.
> 
> As for the tab-book, order if you want, but please be aware that all of my leads and solos (there´s 3 solos from Steffen on the album, ALL other leads and solos are mine, on the 15 minute track "Weltseele" - which I contributed - I am also the ONLY guitar player on the recording) have been transcribed by somebody else with no input or corrections from me, so don´t assume you´ll see the correct ways to play them. I´ve transcribed most of the rhythm parts though.
> 
> ...



Their loss from what I hear. 
You should get some passionate youngster and put up your own band.
It would make everyone around here very happy.


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## Petef2007 (Nov 20, 2015)

Fountainhead said:


> Let me be clear on this: EVERYTHING these guys are putting out from the new album (the teaser, the music video for "akroasis") has my playing on it, even though they´re trying to give you a different impression. Wether that´s a cool thing to do, decide for yourself ;-)



Definitely not a cool move from the Obscura camp. Shady business from them (let's be honest here - Steffan) for sure, same with claiming Weltseele as their own when you wrote/played it all. 

It's a little tough to support a band when they pull moves like this regardless of the musical quality.


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## Michael_Ten (Nov 20, 2015)

Fountainhead said:


> Hey guys. Hope you dig the song (which I co-wrote and co-arranged - the 7/8 bits, middle/solo part and everything after 3.40 are mine) and my playing on it. Let me be clear on this: EVERYTHING these guys are putting out from the new album (the teaser, the music video for "akroasis") has my playing on it, even though they´re trying to give you a different impression. Wether that´s a cool thing to do, decide for yourself ;-) But as I´ve said before in my official statement, it´s actions like these which show why I´m much happier not being in this band anymore.
> 
> As for the tab-book, order if you want, but please be aware that all of my leads and solos (there´s 3 solos from Steffen on the album, ALL other leads and solos are mine, on the 15 minute track "Weltseele" - which I contributed - I am also the ONLY guitar player on the recording) have been transcribed by somebody else with no input or corrections from me, so don´t assume you´ll see the correct ways to play them. I´ve transcribed most of the rhythm parts though.
> 
> ...



If you and Christian formed a death metal band, that would be the most glorious thing to hit creation.


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## Thorerges (Nov 20, 2015)

Fountainhead said:


> Hey guys. Hope you dig the song (which I co-wrote and co-arranged - the 7/8 bits, middle/solo part and everything after 3.40 are mine) and my playing on it. Let me be clear on this: EVERYTHING these guys are putting out from the new album (the teaser, the music video for "akroasis") has my playing on it, even though they´re trying to give you a different impression. Wether that´s a cool thing to do, decide for yourself ;-) But as I´ve said before in my official statement, it´s actions like these which show why I´m much happier not being in this band anymore.
> 
> As for the tab-book, order if you want, but please be aware that all of my leads and solos (there´s 3 solos from Steffen on the album, ALL other leads and solos are mine, on the 15 minute track "Weltseele" - which I contributed - I am also the ONLY guitar player on the recording) have been transcribed by somebody else with no input or corrections from me, so don´t assume you´ll see the correct ways to play them. I´ve transcribed most of the rhythm parts though.
> 
> ...



So my guess is that creatively, Steffens input isn't that great, but he's more involved in marketing.

Man, such a shame. Obscura released some of my favorite material ever.


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## Thorerges (Nov 21, 2015)

Petef2007 said:


> Definitely not a cool move from the Obscura camp. Shady business from them (let's be honest here - Steffan) for sure, same with claiming Weltseele as their own when you wrote/played it all.
> 
> It's a little tough to support a band when they pull moves like this regardless of the musical quality.



Yea it is a real shame tbh. It seems the band is standing on shady ground at the moment. When Hannes and Chris left the band, they took their Obscura songs with them. A real shame some of the .... that goes on in this genre, considering how talented these guys are. 

But I have to say, I was disheartened to hear Steffen made minimal contributions to Omnivium, explains why once Hannes left it took them so long to release Akroasis, he doesn't write much material yet wants to be a part of everything. 

Have to say I feel the world for Tom at this point. Whatever the reason he left the band, he gave them a lot of material for an entire release, and hasn't gotten the proper credit for it. 

In spite of all this, I hope the new kid sticks around. He sounds like an amazing player, and I hope Obscura can actually get around to releasing a 4th record in 2 years and not make us wait so long because of mis-management like this.


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## Double A (Nov 21, 2015)

As much respect I have for Fountainhead and the other members of Obscura that left/fired, the piling on here is kind of ....ty.

We have one perspective and I have a feeling Kumerer will never say anything and I can't help but feel this is all in bad taste on both sides.

I like the new song and Tom's playing on it is fantastic. That is what I am going to focus on.


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## isomorphic (Nov 21, 2015)

Double A said:


> As much respect I have for Fountainhead and the other members of Obscura that left/fired, the piling on here is kind of ....ty.
> 
> We have one perspective and I have a feeling Kumerer will never say anything and I can't help but feel this is all in bad taste on both sides.
> 
> I like the new song and Tom's playing on it is fantastic. That is what I am going to focus on.



In court, what do guilty people tend to do? Stay quiet.

Yeah, theres a chance Kumerer is not at fault for some things. But all the evidence seems contrary to that. 

The dude is a great marketer. I've been watching what he's been doing on social media and the dude knows whats he's doing to get awareness of his products (Music, tab books). He has great timing to the market with his products as well. 

Anyone who wants to argue by saying "you're reading too much into this" is naive and has no idea about the fundamentals of capitalism/business. 

Tl;dr - I support the ex members of Obscura 100% until Kumerer can make a statement that isn't backpedaling/weaksauce


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## TheHandOfStone (Nov 21, 2015)

I just want to chime in and say there's a way to support Fountainhead for his uncredited work on the new Obscura album: pick out something from his Bandcamp and give him a bit of extra $.


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## Double A (Nov 21, 2015)

isomorphic said:


> Tl;dr - I support the ex members of Obscura 100% until Kumerer can make a statement that isn't backpedaling/weaksauce


Uh, I kinda just support all of them since they all make music I like.


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## MrPepperoniNipples (Nov 21, 2015)

isomorphic said:


> In court, what do guilty people tend to do? Stay quiet.
> 
> Tl;dr - I support the ex members of Obscura 100% until Kumerer can make a statement that isn't backpedaling/weaksauce



No smart band or band member will ever call someone out and say something about silly band drama, it makes everyone involved look stupid.

No matter what Steffen would say, he and the band would look dumb just for getting involved.


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## Thorerges (Nov 22, 2015)

For me it is pretty simple, Steffens creative involvement in his own band seems limited. Hannes, Tom and Chris all mentioned this - not to state the obvious that his name isn't on all the songs (I just checked), but rather Hannes and Chris had the greatest share of writing. 

Not to mention, if I fired a band member before an album is released, I would either give complete credit to the songwriter (Tom) or ditch the song and use a new one. To not mention Toms contribution outright is kind of cheap, especially if he wrote the lead and some rhythm. 

I would say Steffen is an unbelievable marketer, I know RAN guitars and bought my own ENGl thanks in part to his endorsement, but creatively I think he can do more for Obscura.


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## anomynous (Nov 22, 2015)

First off, no offense Tom. 


You guys keep saying Obscura isn't crediting Tom, but that's not completely true.

https://www.facebook.com/RealmOfObscura/posts/10153721665053545


We're only getting Tom's side of the story, and he was "fired" from the band, so they replaced him. It would be weird to be promoting the new album with promo material featuring somebody who isn't in the band anymore. It would also be stupid to scrap an album that was pretty much done because they fired somebody involved with it, especially since there's already been a 5 year wait between albums.


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## isomorphic (Nov 22, 2015)

The way Steffen fired him was the douche manuever. There is no justification for firing someone, but not mentioning it until the EXACT day you have a shiny new cover art and music sample. 

There has been nobody defending this. There is no justification for doing something like this other than being marketing savvy. 




MrPepperoniNipples said:


> No smart band or band member will ever call someone out and say something about silly band drama, it makes everyone involved look stupid.
> 
> No matter what Steffen would say, he and the band would look dumb just for getting involved.



Lol, ever heard of an apology? Not everything someone says can entice drama. It's called being an adult and being the bigger person in the situation - even if you're not entirely at fault. 

Egos get in the way.


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## Petef2007 (Nov 22, 2015)

anomynous said:


> First off, no offense Tom.
> 
> 
> It would be weird to be promoting the new album with promo material featuring somebody who isn't in the band anymore. It would also be stupid to scrap an album that was pretty much done because they fired somebody involved with it, especially since there's already been a 5 year wait between albums.



The trouble is, to someone who isn't in the know, it looks like Raphael is playing/has played all the leads on the album - and it wasn't him.

If they put out a separate statement announcing the lineup change BEFORE announcing Akroasis, that would be one thing. Sneaking it in the announcement for the new album is a bit.....well, underhand would be the polite word to use. 

Put it another way - if you dedicated yourself to writing music for a band, and the band then put out a video with someone else miming your parts and barely made a whisper regarding your contributions until people called them out on it, how would you feel?

Also, I just don't think it's the best way to showcase Raphael's ability. We haven't heard what his personal style can bring to Obscura - we just know he can play the stuff.


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## Fountainhead (Nov 23, 2015)

anomynous said:


> First off, no offense Tom.
> 
> 
> You guys keep saying Obscura isn't crediting Tom, but that's not completely true.
> ...



That is a fair point to make, zero offense taken! 

However let me say the following:
Bands pulling that kinda .... in public and dragging each other through the mud? I never thought I´d would be part of something like that, and I HATE it. All I ever wanted was to play music that I like, and to connect with an audience that (hopefully) likes what I do. And the fact that some people may now associate me/my work with some bull.... like that rather than the actual MUSIC enrages me.
That is one of the main reasons why I haven´t talked about the break between Obscura and I for almost 4 months and (together with Linus) tried to solve our differences in private, even though I got asked about the state of the band and album almost daily. 4 months in which I could have looked for a new gig and taken advantage of the band´s name, which I didn´t - even though times are pretty rough, having just invested 9 months of work into the writing and recording of the album, without any lucrative side-gigs (all production-work and the release of my own new solo album I had postponed to this winter in order to do "akroasis" and summer slaughter) And also, don´t forget that Christian has been completely silent about any problems within the band since his departure and only recently spoke out when .... hit the fan last week!

But if something like this would happen to you, would you stay silent and be cool with the fact at hundrets of thousands of people will listen to what you worked so hard for and not even be aware that it´s you? You don´t like what I do? totally cool, me neither sometimes ;-) but being taken advantage off is something I am definitely not cool with and right now I have the feeling that this is what´s happening, hence my frequent posting and explaining.

I had people posting on my facebook wall that they knew "from an inside source" that I supposedly was unable to play my stuff (which ironically is still on the record, so it can´t have been THAT bad ;-) ), that I tried to sue the band for money (which also is very ironic given the fact that my attorney indeed adviced me to sue the band because, according to him, legallly I was 100% in the right was treated unfairly and I DECIDED NOT TO - btw: I officially excited the band´s company a couple of weeks ago so technically that would have meant sueing myself) and more. And then several colleagues from established bands came forward telling me that a certain person told them he had to fire me because I was unprepared for summer slaughter. Which AGAIN is ironic since we split before we even rehearsed for that and had NEVER actually played together except for the audition where I got the gig (while being only 50% as prepared as I was for SS and had a bad fever.... ) and then it dawned on me why that same person had the label remove my Obscura videos from youtube: because they prove the opposite (they´re back up on my facebook-page, so judge for yourself).

Now if those were not spread by "the band" and it´s all just a great coincidence, it still hurts my career (and thus my livelyhood) in a very real way when in turn my "defence" is right there in the teaser and music video, yet the band is giving the fans the impression it´s not even me whose playing they´re listening to.

So far I have publically not spoken about anything I cannot prove or back up with documents, screenshots etc. And I have also not said anything publically unless the band acted first. What I did is to defend myself and fight for my right to be associated with the parts/songs I wrote and played/recorded. And as I already said in the official statement on my FB-page, I have zero ill intentions against anybody in the band. But this is my life and my career and I´m not standing by and turning the other cheek. On the other hand, I have also zero intention of adding fuel to the fire without being provoked by new actions like these. The above post saying that public back-n-forth hurts anybody involved is completely right! Give me a public apology that is spread to all the regular channels just like the video has been and I´ll be HAPPY (definitely not being ironic here) to let it rest because then people can decide for themselves who and what they wanna support, listen to and like.

I completely agree that it would be to stupid to "scrap" the album, who would seriously consider something like that? and of course they gotta promote their new line-up! And I totally get that they totally would want to announce that line-up ASAP. But this is a bit different, as some of you fine folks here have already pointed out.

Now, the statement you´ve linked to has been posted AFTER the backlash from fans the band received after publishing the teaser video. In fact, the very same words were posted by Linus on his personal page earlier to them appearing on the official page, but still at least a day after the teaser came out....
btw: the original teaser/post was called "album annoncement" - not "line-up announcement", so... ;-) 


Anyway, to anybody who´s supported me on this: a heartfelt THANK YOU!  To anybody else: Again, despite all of this BULL...., I hope you´ll still enjoy the album and "support music not rumours"!


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## OmegaSlayer (Nov 23, 2015)

Tom, what kind of gear did you used on the album.
I'm mostly interested in the pick up choice


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## Fountainhead (Nov 23, 2015)

OmegaSlayer said:


> Tom, what kind of gear did you used on the album.
> I'm mostly interested in the pick up choice



I used my two Soultool signature 7 strings (fretted and fretless), which both have my signature pickup sets from GoodTone Pickups. The fretless one has a sustainer pickup in the neck position, which I didn´t use on the album though. On the acoustic parts I used an Ibanez 7-string steelstring (forgot the model, think there´s only one) and a fretless Godin 11-string "multi-oud". Also an e-bow for some solos. Pickups: John Petrucci signature dunlops for the fretted parts. A custom metal pick for the fretless ones. Everything was recorded through the Kemper profiler and later reamped by Victor for both guitars to sit nicely in the mix.


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## anomynous (Nov 23, 2015)

Fountainhead said:


> That is a fair point to make, zero offense taken!
> 
> However let me say the following:
> Bands pulling that kinda .... in public and dragging each other through the mud? I never thought I´d would be part of something like that, and I HATE it. All I ever wanted was to play music that I like, and to connect with an audience that (hopefully) likes what I do. And the fact that some people may now associate me/my work with some bull.... like that rather than the actual MUSIC enrages me.
> ...





All I know is I was looking forward to seeing your take on old material and the live show, but looks we'll never see that. Except for your videos.


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## Lorcan Ward (Nov 23, 2015)

Thanks for dropping in Tom and telling your side of the story.

Its really sad to see some drama in a band you really like since it can really impact on your enjoyment of their future material. Either way i'm still looking forward to hearing your contribution and fretless playing on the new album.


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## Thorerges (Nov 23, 2015)

First of all Tom, thanks a lot for dropping by and posting. I am honestly very upset that you left the band (even though the new kid sounds very, very talented) - your solo on Akroasis is just phenomenal, I really look forward to the record coming out. 

I actually thought Christian left mainly because he wanted to focus on his own power metal stuff and because touring with Obscura is tough because of injury. He also mentioned "musical differences", so I figured he wasn't into death metal as much as before (which would be a shame, because he pushed the genre so much). 

Now it makes sense, a part of Alkaloid sounds like Obscura because of Christian. Also, linking what is being said he with what Hannes said also, seems like the founder of the band has a very specific mindset, and won't contribute much in terms of songwriting. Man, so painful. Obscura was my go-to band for listening to otherworldly ..... Guess I'll have to look somewhere else.


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## OmegaSlayer (Nov 24, 2015)

Now, just to chime in a little bit...
There aren't many guitarists out there using fretless/e-bow/etc...
So how do you think you can hide the playing of such a peculiar guitarist?
Again Tom, best luck with your career.
From what I heard on Akroasis, I really want to hear more death metal material from you.


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## isomorphic (Nov 24, 2015)

> that I tried to sue the band for money (which also is very ironic given the fact that my attorney indeed adviced me to sue the band because, according to him, legallly I was 100% in the right was treated unfairly and I DECIDED NOT TO



Should've tbh. It sucks how there's such a stigma attached to suing someone when sometimes (like situations like this) it's completely justified. 

It may not be too late if you decide to..


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## Rosal76 (Nov 24, 2015)

Fountainhead said:


> What I did is to defend myself and fight for my right to be associated with the parts/songs I wrote and played/recorded.



Rest assure, Fountainhead, that you have a lot of die hard fans out there, especially die hard guitar players who are already familiar and enjoy your work, who will recognize your contributions on the new Obscura album without reading who's credited for writing what song/solo. I do think it's very important that they credit you for what you wrote, though. It's the same thing with Marty Friedman and Dave Mustaine. Fans with acute hearing will know a Marty Friedman solo when they hear it and won't mistake it for something Dave Mustaine wrote/played. And they don't even have to read the C.D. booklet to see who played what. If it's one thing die hard fans do, is that they find out who really played what on their favorite albums.

I ordered the guitar tablature book for the new Obscura album and was very upset to read that your solos aren't transcribed by you. When I play other guitar player's music, I try to honour the guitar player and play his music exactly and/or as close as possible as he played it on the album. I am pleased to know that you transcribed the rhythm parts.  Anyways, can't wait to hear your contributions on the new Obscura album.


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## Rosal76 (Dec 6, 2015)

Heys guys, Obscura have released a new trailer (#2) for their new album.


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## Thorerges (Dec 6, 2015)

I checked it out, maybe one of those is welteseele. Psyched to hear the record.


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## Double A (Dec 8, 2015)

This album sounds incredible. The reason Obscura is one of my top bands is that old school cynic flavor they bring. There will never being another Cynic - Focus, but Obscura does nicely. 

And honestly, no matter what I said earlier, I still think the piling on sucks but... Tom's playing from what I can hear brought a very different dimension to the band. I really would have liked to see how that grew.


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## Petef2007 (Dec 9, 2015)

Nice to hear some of Weltseele in that clip, the strings work really nicely on it. 

Ode to the Sun reminded me of Ocean Gateways.


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## Rosal76 (Dec 10, 2015)

Hey guys, Obscura have released another Youtube clip for their new album. This is to promote the guitar tablature book for the new album. As not to add confusion, Obscura have released 4 Youtube clips so far. As follows, the order they were released:

Official teaser 1. 
Official video for Akroasis. 
Official teaser 2.
Guitar tablature book teaser 1.


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## Chewy5150 (Dec 15, 2015)

Obscura, 'Sermon of the Seven Suns' - Exclusive Premiere


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## Thorerges (Dec 15, 2015)

It is ....ing well written. I could see how Steffen is interested in these hook riffs, and he writes them pretty ....ing well. The drumming is superb, bass a little lower in the mix, but still has that nice oriental hook. 

I have to say, that is a ....ing fine guitar solo if I ever heard one. Fountainhead is amazing.


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## Necropitated (Dec 16, 2015)

Thorerges said:


> It is ....ing well written. I could see how Steffen is interested in these hook riffs, and he writes them pretty ....ing well. The drumming is superb, bass a little lower in the mix, but still has that nice oriental hook.
> 
> I have to say, that is a ....ing fine guitar solo if I ever heard one. Fountainhead is amazing.



You think this was well written? Way too long IMO, after Tom's fretless solo, there's nothing going on that sparks my interest. I really liked the first 3 minutes and listened to them a few times on repeat but I wouldn't consider the whole song well written.


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## Double A (Dec 16, 2015)

It is pretty well written. lol


----------



## Chiba666 (Dec 16, 2015)

Decided to check Obscura today after reading this thread and wow, I am impressed, love the bass. Excited for the new release


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## Thorerges (Dec 16, 2015)

Necropitated said:


> You think this was well written? Way too long IMO, after Tom's fretless solo, there's nothing going on that sparks my interest. I really liked the first 3 minutes and listened to them a few times on repeat but I wouldn't consider the whole song well written.



Yea it is well written. Granted, I am a bigger fan of Omnivium, that was a masterpiece that will never be repeated, but I am very excited by this record tbh.


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## sezna (Dec 16, 2015)

Thorerges said:


> Yea it is well written. Granted, I am a bigger fan of Omnivium, that was a masterpiece that will never be repeated, but I am very excited by this record tbh.



I think if we don't compare it to Omnivium, we will think it is a good album haha.

But even then, based on this song, if the album has a few really unique songs like ocean gateways, I think they could be on the same level.


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## Thorerges (Dec 17, 2015)

sezna said:


> I think if we don't compare it to Omnivium, we will think it is a good album haha.
> 
> But even then, based on this song, if the album has a few really unique songs like ocean gateways, I think they could be on the same level.



We'll see what happens. Ocean Gateways is definitely a Hannes Grossmann type thing that won't be repeated. I think the whole neoclassical + brutal element will be missing from this record, Omnivium was very unique in this sense. 

However, Steffen writes unbelievable riffs and Tom does some incredible stuff as well, we'll see what it has to offer.


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## sezna (Dec 17, 2015)

Thorerges said:


> We'll see what happens. Ocean Gateways is definitely a Hannes Grossmann type thing that won't be repeated. I think the whole neoclassical + brutal element will be missing from this record, Omnivium was very unique in this sense.
> 
> However, Steffen writes unbelievable riffs and Tom does some incredible stuff as well, we'll see what it has to offer.



I suppose I should probably be careful when I use the words "unique" and "like" in the same sentence - I meant unique like ocean gateways as in, unique, like ocean gateways was, not unique and sounding like ocean gateways, which would hardly be unique!

I don't expect clones, but I hope for novel things


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## Double A (Dec 17, 2015)

Honestly, that new song doesn't sound anything like what was on Omnivium. And as much as I like Omnivium this can only be a good thing.

What Obscura is good at is making technical progressive death metal with flashes of Cynic thwon in. And honestly Omnivium was missing a bit of that. This new material is refreshing to me.


----------



## Rosal76 (Jan 14, 2016)

Hey guys, Obscura put up a new song from their new album. 

Exclusive Track Premiere: Obscura's "The Monist" - MetalSucks


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## Static (Jan 14, 2016)

Rosal76 said:


> Hey guys, Obscura put up a new song from their new album.
> 
> Exclusive Track Premiere: Obscura's "The Monist" - MetalSucks



Awesome. I really like the vocals in this although I'm not so sure about whether I like the cynic robotic/vocoder singing thing but I guess i gotta give it a few more listens.

Also, is it just me or does the first solo sound weird? Really cool solo but in terms of the mix, It doesn't seem to sit well with the rest of instruments unlike the second 

solo which i guess is steffens. Great track overall.


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## bloc (Jan 14, 2016)

Yeah I thought the first solo sounded kinda...err...mushy? I love the song though.


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## Dwellingers (Jan 15, 2016)

Great Track. Im pre-ordering the disc as we speak!


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## Double A (Jan 15, 2016)

This just makes waiting worse.


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## Thorerges (Jan 15, 2016)

I really dig the intro, not sure about the cynic thing but the first solo sounded fine.


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## Fathand (Jan 15, 2016)

Catchy riffs and songwriting so far, and enough technicality to keep things interesting. And there's groove that's missing from some über-tech-DM bands. 

Nice.


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## Tech Wrath (Jan 15, 2016)

Rosal76 said:


> Hey guys, Obscura put up a new song from their new album.
> 
> Exclusive Track Premiere: Obscura's "The Monist" - MetalSucks



Holy ....
I do admit, although cool the first solo is a little out of place.
Otherwise...


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## BIG ND SWEATY (Jan 18, 2016)

god damn that clean intro riff in monist is heavy really wish they would have featured it more in the song


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## Double A (Jan 18, 2016)

It is also at the end. Lots of layers in this song. There is also a part at the beginning and the end that you can barely hear with a pinch harmonic that I wish was more upfront in the mix.


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## primitiverebelworld (Jan 19, 2016)

Tech Wrath said:


> Holy ....
> I do admit, although cool the first solo is a little out of place.
> Otherwise...



Yeah dudes. I agree. That first solo after that dark oriental groove....no-no!

Aside from that it will become THE album of the year for me based on these first 3 songs alone


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## Thorerges (Jan 19, 2016)

I honestly kind of got bored with "The Monist". Linus is definitely no Hannes Grossmann (who I admit, I undervalued tremendously, lol). We will see what happens, I have a distinct impression that Welteseele (Spelling?) will be the highlight of the record. 

Otherwise, very much looking forward to this. 

On a side note, it seems Tom payed homage not only to Christian Muenzner (with that unbelievable solo on the title track), but also to Morean (Florian Maier here) on Welteseele. Morean played that insane solo on 'Velocity'. Also, it is pretty cool that Obscura have incorporated some Noneuclid influences on this record. Noneuclid is one of the craziest, most insanely talented groups I know. 







Morean also had a few nice things to say about his relationship with Tom, loving the professionalism for a change!


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## primitiverebelworld (Jan 19, 2016)

Linus is playing fretless bass and Hannes is on drums - being indeed underrated greatly: just listen to "The Radial Covenant"!!! The guy can play guitars as well as drums!

It would be cool if Christian payed homage by contributing a "guest solo" for the album, would it not?


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## Tech Wrath (Jan 19, 2016)

Thorerges said:


> I honestly kind of got bored with "The Monist". Linus is definitely no Hannes Grossmann (who I admit, I undervalued tremendously, lol). We will see what happens, I have a distinct impression that Welteseele (Spelling?) will be the highlight of the record.
> 
> Otherwise, very much looking forward to this.
> 
> ...



Glad to see Tom is on good terms with everyone besides Steffen. I heard Steffen is not giving him credit for his work in the album (although everyone knows what he put into it) and it seems like there is some bad blood. Judging by Tom's character I also doubt Tom is the one who in fault between this. Anyway is this true?


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## chopeth (Jan 19, 2016)

primitiverebelworld said:


> The guy can play guitars as well as drums!



Are you sure is him playing the guitar in the album?

Line-up and Guest Musicians:
-Hannes Grossmann (Obscura, Ex-Necrophagist) &#8211; drums
-Jeff Loomis (Ex-Nevermore, Conquering Dystopia) &#8211; lead guitars
-Per Nilsson (Scar Symmetry) &#8211; lead guitars
-Christian Muenzner (Obscura, Spawn of Possession) &#8211; lead guitars
-Fountainhead &#8211; lead guitars
-Danny Tunker (Aborted, Ex-God Dethroned) &#8211; lead guitars
-Ron Jarzombek (Watchtower, Blotted Science, Spastic Ink) &#8211; lead guitars
-Jimmy Pitts &#8211; Keyboards, Organ and Synth
-Morean (Dark Fortress, Noneuclid) &#8211; Vocals
-V.Santura (Triptykon, Dark Fortress) &#8211; Vocals
-Linus Klausenitzer (Obscura, Noneuclid) &#8211; Bass


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## Thorerges (Jan 20, 2016)

primitiverebelworld said:


> Linus is playing fretless bass and Hannes is on drums - being indeed underrated greatly: just listen to "The Radial Covenant"!!! The guy can play guitars as well as drums!
> 
> It would be cool if Christian payed homage by contributing a "guest solo" for the album, would it not?



I meant as songwriters. Hannes is an incredible songwriter when it comes to writing, he is unbeatable in that sense. His solo record (i.e, another Obscura record) was very solid, but it is Alkaloid that is his real baby. 

Hannes does not play guitar, at all. 

Christian I believe is not on good terms with Steffen, so I doubt he will be a part of Obscura anymore.


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## Thorerges (Jan 20, 2016)

Tech Wrath said:


> Glad to see Tom is on good terms with everyone besides Steffen. I heard Steffen is not giving him credit for his work in the album (although everyone knows what he out into it) and it seems like there is some bad blood. Judging by Tom's character I also doubt Tom is the one who in fault between this. Anyway is this true?



I don't know, it is all very messy and political, and a clear-cut case of how big talent can clash real hard. There is definitely bad blood, and Steffen is going to give him credit on the booklet, but thats it. I think he won't be receiving any credit outside of the CD Booklet. 

Steffen strikes me as the kind of guy to hold a grudge, the way he handled Jeroen Thesseling after he decided to leave was pretty tough, he seemed bitter to even mention Jeroens name (I too am a bit bitter that Jeroen left, he is, in my opinion, one of the finest bassists extreme metal has to offer).

Tom is a great guy it seems, as is Steffen, I don't know any details so I cannot speculate further - but I wish Tom all the best.


----------



## Mwoit (Jan 20, 2016)

chopeth said:


> Are you sure is him playing the guitar in the album?
> 
> Line-up and Guest Musicians:
> -Hannes Grossmann (Obscura, Ex-Necrophagist)  drums
> ...



https://hannesgrossmann.bandcamp.com/album/the-radial-covenant



Bandcamp Page said:


> "The Radial Covenant" is the first solo album of German drummer and producer Hannes Grossmann (Obscura, Blotted Science, ex-Necrophagist), on which *he plays drums and guitars*.
> credits
> 
> released February 3, 2014


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## Necropitated (Jan 20, 2016)

Thorerges said:


> Hannes does not play guitar, at all.



Not true. He plays the guitar and he recorded the guitars on his solo album by himself, though with extensive help of editing. One could argue now if he's a guitar player or not.


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## Double A (Jan 20, 2016)

Hmm, to me the Radial Covenant lacks something and my hunch is that it is another point of view into the songwriting. I could be wrong about that. In my experience bringing more input into the songwriting process always makes a better product. That is also my beef with about half of Alkaloids album, you can kinda tell it is just a bunch of songs written pretty much individually and I lose interest after about 5 tracks.

The Monist is my favorite song of the new songs. Really dig the vibe.


----------



## CreptorStatus (Jan 20, 2016)

Double A said:


> Hmm, to me the Radial Covenant lacks something and my hunch is that it is another point of view into the songwriting.



I gotta agree. I think Hannes is a phenomenal song writer but he really shined when collaborating with Stephen and Christian. I think if that outside input was there The Radial Covenant could have been just as good as another Obscura album.


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## Fountainhead (Jan 20, 2016)

Hey guys,
I see that there´s been some more discussion here. Let´s see if I can clear some things up...



> On a side note, it seems Tom payed homage not only to Christian Muenzner (with that unbelievable solo on the title track), but also to Morean (Florian Maier here) on Welteseele. Morean played that insane solo on 'Velocity'. Also, it is pretty cool that Obscura have incorporated some Noneuclid influences on this record. Noneuclid is one of the craziest, most insanely talented groups I know.


True on both accounts, only that the solo that was inspired by Flo´s "velocity" solo is on "Sermon Of The Seven Suns" 
The guitar solo in "Weltseele" is more akin to what I do in Fountainhead (the project).



> Glad to see Tom is on good terms with everyone besides Steffen


Fortunatly, true. Looking forward to work with Sebastian again (hopefully) soon. Even though we´re in diasagreement about some things, Linus plays on my upcoming new solo album and we´ll both be taking part in a yet unanounced new project. Just played a show with Hannes n Florian a few weeks ago. Also no bad blood with Victor, who´s awesome. And Chris...well, let´s just say that you´ll see us collaborate on something again in the future with 99% certainty 



> There is definitely bad blood, and Steffen is going to give him credit on the booklet, but thats it. I think he won't be receiving any credit outside of the CD Booklet.


Weeeeeelll, no - unfortunatly. They held the finished album back from me and I only got it last week. Turns out that even though I´m credited as guitar player, they stole all my writing-credits except for "Weltseele". I contributed extensively to the arrangements of all tracks except "Ode to the sun", but since that is something that´ll be difficult to proove in court, I won´t get to much into that. However, on each other track on the album, I wrote whole sections of music, for example in the just-released "The Monist", I contributed the music in the chorus sections and a few riffs here and there. In the titletrack it´s the 7/8 parts, most of the middle-section, all of the outro and of course all lead guitar lines. And so on and so forth...
And as far as "receiving credit outside of the CD booklet" goes, Obscura just shared a review of the album where the writer attributed the lead guitar work the Rafael, their new guitar player, just as they intended by sending out the album with a bio that doesn´t include me and instead suggests that Rafael joined the band in 2014 after Chris´ departure.
If you want more, look up an interview Steffen gave "Londonmetalmonthly" where you´ll find everything from him badmouthing me in various ways, implying I had mental issues, trying to impair my livelyhood in various ways, saying that he recorded 80% of the guitars on the album all the way down to dragging Chris Münzner into it by claiming he wanted back into the band after my departure (and being turned down) and apologized for having recommended me in the first place. Yeah....there should be a transcript that interview online.
Now, what is the thing that´s shooting the bull....-factor into the stratosphere is that THEY EVEN CHANGED MY THANXLIST.
Again. no need to even defend myself here, all of this should speak for itself.



> Are you sure is him playing the guitar in the album?


Well, having played on it, allow me to confirm that: yes, Hannes did play all rhythms and even one solo on "The Radial Covenant", all us other guys were just supplying solos. And having been in the studio with a few bands in my day, I´d say that I´ve seen people with much more of a reputation as guitar players use more editing than Hannes did ;-)

Also, I want to adress the people who complained about the solo in "The Monist" - I agree, by FAR the least favorite of my solos on the album. It´s not bad, but I wasn´t really feeling the vibe of the part I had to play over and I wouldn´t have minded if the part had been half as long. In fact, there was a longer ambient-ish brooding intro section to the song that had me do my dark oriental-ish fretless/ebow thing over a Monochord drone, which eventually led into the opening riff and IMO it was just the coolest thing.... They took that out on that last day of mixing, after I was fired. I also think that I worked TOO hard on the intonation of the remaining solo so that the fretless-factor is lost a bit. Can´t wait for you to hear the other fretted and fretless solos on the album though, I have a much more positive relationship with those!  

best, Tom / Fountainhead.


----------



## Thorerges (Jan 21, 2016)

CreptorStatus said:


> I gotta agree. I think Hannes is a phenomenal song writer but he really shined when collaborating with Stephen and Christian. I think if that outside input was there The Radial Covenant could have been just as good as another Obscura album.



I thought the Alkaloid record sounded incredible, and he wrote most of the songs, excluding the Dyson Sphere songs. I didn't know he recorded the rhythm guitars, that is fairly incredible.


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## isomorphic (Jan 21, 2016)

The more I read about Steffen the more pissed I get.


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## OmegaSlayer (Jan 21, 2016)

If Steffen managed to make Tom and Christian work on something together...I'm glad for that, as awkward as it might sound.


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## Tech Wrath (Jan 21, 2016)

OmegaSlayer said:


> If Steffen managed to make Tom and Christian work on something together...I'm glad for that, as awkward as it might sound.


Christian + Tom = Christian bringing Tom into the necrophagist 50th anniversary album? Lol xP or maybe bringing him to alkaloid in the future. Idk XP excited for what is to come


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## Thorerges (Jan 22, 2016)

isomorphic said:


> The more I read about Steffen the more pissed I get.



It is a real shame. Obscura was the last tech-death band I enjoyed


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## Double A (Jan 22, 2016)

Guys, it is music. Not high school. You know who is a real piece of ....? Malmsteen and he was a genius and him being an asshole doesn't take away from that. Yeah, Fountainhead looks like he got ....ed but you are seriously only going to get his side of things, pander all you want. But when I listen to music the last ....ing thing I think about is how dysfunctional the band is and I just enjoy the music. Steffen might be a tool, the music world is FULL of ....ing tools, including the singer of Tool and everyone loves them. It's music, not your family and the only people that have a genuine reason to feel like .... about it are the band members, get over it.

And if it bothers you so much that Tom got screwed the LEAST you could do is listen to the album he put so much work into and let everyone know that Tom was a huge part of it. I assume the guy is going to get paid for his work at least.


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## Fountainhead (Jan 22, 2016)

"Double A" - I agree!

Since the band didn´t credit me for anything besides my 15-minute track, I will probably not see a single penny, given that they will never perform that one live.
So yeah, if anybody listens to the album, is AWARE what part I had in creating it and is letting people know how they feel about it, that´s the only reward I will get...
So, let me be clear about it (again). When you see me talking about all of this, it´s not to make the other side look bad, it´s to let people know about my part in this (since nobody else will), so they can judge for themselves.

If you want to hear the other side - look no further: Latest Issue

;-)

best, Tom.


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## Thorerges (Jan 22, 2016)

Double A said:


> Guys, it is music. Not high school. You know who is a real piece of ....? Malmsteen and he was a genius and him being an asshole doesn't take away from that. Yeah, Fountainhead looks like he got ....ed but you are seriously only going to get his side of things, pander all you want. But when I listen to music the last ....ing thing I think about is how dysfunctional the band is and I just enjoy the music. Steffen might be a tool, the music world is FULL of ....ing tools, including the singer of Tool and everyone loves them. It's music, not your family and the only people that have a genuine reason to feel like .... about it are the band members, get over it.
> 
> And if it bothers you so much that Tom got screwed the LEAST you could do is listen to the album he put so much work into and let everyone know that Tom was a huge part of it. I assume the guy is going to get paid for his work at least.



While I do agree with you, I don't think you realize that these constant lineup changes ultimately take away from a bands signature sound (such as Omnivium, which is arguably one of the best records in this genre). Of course, whatever happens ultimately happens - and Hannes did not like working with Steffen, while Chris also seemed to want to do his own thing and not tour so extensively. 

While I am super excited to hear the new material, it has a very high standard to meet - so we'll see how that pans out. I am of course, very much looking forward to hearing (and crediting toms work).


----------



## Thorerges (Jan 22, 2016)

Fountainhead said:


> "Double A" - I agree!
> 
> Since the band didn´t credit me for anything besides my 15-minute track, I will probably not see a single penny, given that they will never perform that one live.
> So yeah, if anybody listens to the album, is AWARE what part I had in creating it and is letting people know how they feel about it, that´s the only reward I will get...
> ...



The first thing I noticed was the discrepancy between Hannes' and Muenzners' accounts of who wrote the most material on Omnivium. Both Hannes and Chris say Hannes wrote 90% of the material. Also, the Omnivium booklet credits Hannes with contributing to 9/9 songs. Kummerer is only credited with 5 (although he probably had a large say in those songs). He should not say "me and Hannes wrote the majority of the album", when Hannes did alone. 

I did not read that he implied you had 'mental' issues to be honest, and in regards to crediting you, he definitely does not credit you with arrangements, which is not great. 

Anyways, Tom, I am very excited to hear your work. I don't know anything about production, or about what it takes to record a fretless guitar. *But it is very unusual that Steffen now claims that "(fretless) guitar cannot work in a live situation", something many people here spoke about - but he seemed oblivious to.*

In conclusion, I am looking forward to your next solo record, and of course will be paying attention to your unbelievable skills in Akroasis.


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## Christian Muenzner (Jan 22, 2016)

Deleted my original post, waste of energy


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## TheHandOfStone (Jan 22, 2016)

I still can't tell which side is "right," but I can tell you who acted more professionally. Hats off to Fountainhead for keeping it strictly about business.

Also, to Christian: staying out of this is good judgment on your part.


----------



## NaYoN (Jan 23, 2016)

Fountainhead said:


> "Double A" - I agree!
> 
> Since the band didn´t credit me for anything besides my 15-minute track, I will probably not see a single penny, given that they will never perform that one live.
> So yeah, if anybody listens to the album, is AWARE what part I had in creating it and is letting people know how they feel about it, that´s the only reward I will get...
> ...



What's weird is I have a promo copy of the album for review, and this is what the promo insert says:



> Obscura is:
> Steffen Kummerer &#8211; Vocals & Guitars
> Tom Geldschläger &#8211; Guitars
> Linus Klausenitzer &#8211; Bass
> ...



And it includes your "special thanks" section as well. I wonder at what point did that change.

edit: Also gotta say that the fretless work on this album - which is clearly present on more than just that one track - is great, and it adds a lot to the band. Shame that you're no longer with the band.

Another discrepancy: The magazine interview with Steffen says "We never worked together at woodshed studios with V. Santura" whereas the promo liner notes I have read:



> Guitars, bass & vocals recorded between 25th of May and 25th of June
> 2015 at Woodshed Studios, Landshut, Germany. Engineered by V.
> Santura.



Tom's thanks read:



> Tom Geldschläger
> Egon & Soultool Customized Guitars, Ralf & GoodTone Pickups, Eckhard &
> Steinberg, Loxx, Richter and Engl for the support. Ibanez Guitars & Meinl
> Distribution, Frank & Christiane Geldschläger for always being there,
> ...




The individual credits on each song:


> Akróasis
> (lyrics by Steffen Kummerer, music by Steffen Kummerer, Linus
> Klausenitzer, Tom Geldschläger & Sebastian Lanser)
> Ode to the Sun
> ...


----------



## anomynous (Jan 23, 2016)

The plot thickens


----------



## Tech Wrath (Jan 23, 2016)

NaYoN said:


> What's weird is I have a promo copy of the album for review, and this is what the promo insert says:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Wow. Wonder if Steffen kept it that way just for the promo copies so he didn't get negative reviews? Or maybe hopefully is actually deciding to give Tom credit.


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## NaYoN (Jan 24, 2016)

Tech Wrath said:


> Wow. Wonder if Steffen kept it that way just for the promo copies so he didn't get negative reviews? Or maybe hopefully is actually deciding to give Tom credit.



I don't think a tinfoil theory is necessary. It probably got changed between post production and final release.


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## Fountainhead (Jan 25, 2016)

Jeezus, WTF?
This is what was sent out to reviewers of the album:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xl7xgoglfowvqd5/Akróasis Album Text.pdf?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vyvjqqp82rr3pcr/OBSCURA Bio 2016.pdf?dl=0

plus their current promo picture with Rafael.

I know that because it was forwarded to me by somebody who was supposed to review the album for a major online publication.



About the thanxlist: what I sent out originally included a closing line that I like to include on most of my projects. I´m a ....ing hippie, you see, and wishing love and light to all beings apparently seemed not metal enough for Obscura.
Of course it´s just a little tiny thing that "they" would take that out without consulting me, but for me it neatly sums up the amount of disrespect and unprofessionalism at play here.
The fact that any of these things even have to be discussed, openly non-the-less, just boggles my mind...

Thanks to NayOn for providing the info, btw!


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## NaYoN (Jan 25, 2016)

Fountainhead said:


> Jeezus, WTF?
> This is what was sent out to reviewers of the album:
> 
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/xl7xgoglfowvqd5/Akróasis Album Text.pdf?dl=0
> ...



Yeah, that was what I was talking about, though I didn't send these, for the record  But that's what the promo I have looks like as well.

Hope to hear more of your output in the future!


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## takotakumi (Jan 28, 2016)

New Track "Ten Sepiroth" ))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OZYHJ_jme0


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## TheHandOfStone (Jan 28, 2016)

When your least favorite song so far is still really good, that's how you know you're in for a great album.


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## Fountainhead (Jan 29, 2016)

Hey Thoerges!


> I did not read that he implied you had 'mental' issues to be honest, and in regards to crediting you, he definitely does not credit you with arrangements, which is not great.



I just read the interview again and parts of it have been edited out since it´s been published. Thankfully I have a transcript of it


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## Chewy5150 (Jan 29, 2016)

Obscura: New Song &#39;Ode To The Sun&#39; Available For Streaming - Blabbermouth.net


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## Double A (Jan 29, 2016)

I didn't like Ten Sepiroth as much as the others released but Ode To The Sun is ....ing awesome.


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## Cyn__Theia (Jan 29, 2016)

"The Monist" is my least favorite track so far, but I love the heavier riffage and approach to "Ode to the Sun". I really liked "Ten Sepiroth" yesterday too; I feel like it is going to kind of tie the album together. The title track is still my favorite from all the tracks released so far, though.
I can't wait for this album, it's going to be awesome to listen to it from first track to last, absorbing it all through headphones, uninterrupted, with all contingencies set aside as my imagination blazes into the cosmos.

_"Wherever one thing reaches into the other
Neither of the others can leave
Each requires the other"_


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## anomynous (Jan 30, 2016)

After one listen Weltseele is definitely the strongest track on the album.


Very happy with the whole thing.


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## Cathedral Spires (Jan 30, 2016)

Personally Akroasis is my favorite at the moment. The Monist was the first track I heard from the record, and I was severely disappointed. I'm glad the rest of the songs don't sound like that one. I feel like as a song in general, it wasn't necessarily bad, but as an Obscura sound specifically, I expect more. This is one reason I really like Akroasis, if not for being shreddy and technically and downright beautiful, then just for truly grasping that Obscura sound.


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## NaYoN (Jan 31, 2016)

Fountainhead said:


> Hey Thoerges!
> 
> 
> I just read the interview again and parts of it have been edited out since it´s been published. Thankfully I have a transcript of it



I have an audio interview with him going up on Monday, fully unedited, where he gives you credit for all songs and says almost all your leads are on the album.


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## Fountainhead (Feb 1, 2016)

> I have an audio interview with him going up on Monday, fully unedited, where he gives you credit for all songs and says almost all your leads are on the album.



Thanks for the heads-up NaYoN - I hope that means he´ll fnally stop this bull.... and we can all move on to actual music again


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## NaYoN (Feb 1, 2016)

Fountainhead said:


> Thanks for the heads-up NaYoN - I hope that means he´ll fnally stop this bull.... and we can all move on to actual music again



Here you go: Heavy Pod Is Heavy Cast &#8211; Episode 15: A Chat With Obscura&#8217;s Steffen Kummerer &#8211; Heavy Blog Is Heavy

The part where we talk about you starts at 19:50, he says he kept the leads at 21:39, he says you're on the album and you're "mentioned everywhere" and that the album was arranged by the whole band at that time with you, him, Sebastian and Linus at 22:25


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## takotakumi (Feb 1, 2016)

NaYoN said:


> Here you go: Heavy Pod Is Heavy Cast  Episode 15: A Chat With Obscuras Steffen Kummerer  Heavy Blog Is Heavy
> 
> The part where we talk about you starts at 19:50, he says he kept the leads at 21:39, he says you're on the album and you're "mentioned everywhere" and that the album was arranged by the whole band at that time with you, him, Sebastian and Linus at 22:25



Just finished listening to this...

Great interview!Very Interesting

Now I have to read your omnivium analisis


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## Rosal76 (Feb 1, 2016)

Awesome interview, Nayon. 

In the interview, Steffen Kummerer says at 21:10 - 21:19, "And this is part of the problematic point of the fretless guitars. For the rhythm guitars, it did not work". 

Did Steffen not already know that fretless guitars are instruments Tom Fountainhead uses a lot and therefore, know how a fretless guitar would sound???


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## Double A (Feb 1, 2016)

That was a very cool interview, way more in depth about everything than you usually see from interviews.

I will refrain from posting my thoughts on Akroasis... Right now I am listening to Cosmogenesis and Omnivium over and over again until I get a proper listen in the mail.


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## NaYoN (Feb 1, 2016)

Rosal76 said:


> Awesome interview, Nayon.
> 
> In the interview, Steffen Kummerer says at 21:10 - 21:19, "And this is part of the problematic point of the fretless guitars. For the rhythm guitars, it did not work".
> 
> Did Steffen not already know that fretless guitars are instruments Tom Fountainhead uses a lot and therefore, know how a fretless guitar would sound???



I think he thought it would be fine but after recording realized that it doesn't work as well as he thought it would. That's the impression I got from our conversation and reading other interviews.

Having worked with fretless guitars and weird instrumentation in general myself, what sounds good on paper doesn't always sound good in practice.


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## Fountainhead (Feb 1, 2016)

I think the more important question should be: "if fretless guitars didn't work, why are they all over the new album?" 
Fretless rhythm guitars are all over "sermon" (hell, even the acoustic guitars are fretless here), "the monist", "fractal dimension" and "Weltseele".


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## NaYoN (Feb 1, 2016)

Fountainhead said:


> I think the more important question should be: "if fretless guitars didn't work, why are they all over the new album?"
> Fretless rhythm guitars are all over "sermon" (hell, even the acoustic guitars are fretless here), "the monist", "fractal dimension" and "Weltseele".




Well, another interview said that he didn't rerecord weltseele, and in fact in this interview he says he rerecorded 7 songs, which presumably excludes weltseele. As for the rest, there are some sections I can hear but not in the rhythm guitars for the most part. He does say that for certain parts he kept the slide sounds from the fretless. We don't really know how the rerecording process exactly worked so I think there's little point in speculating. 

In the end, he gives you credit in the writing of all the songs, and many guitar parts over the album. The timbre of fretless guitars is definitely different, so maybe that sound wasn't desirable for some heavier/more riffy parts? Where you can clearly hear the fretless it's not really playing along with the rhythms but doing its own thing like a lead. I'm not the man, I don't know. Seems like credit was the primary issue being discussed here so I asked him about it and he credited Tom without any further prodding. I can't say anything about the rest. But this seems resolved at least?


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## Double A (Feb 1, 2016)

Guess what I just got in the mail...

This album is my favorite out of all three. It is honestly fantastic start to finish.

The fractal Dimension T shirt with it is really nice.

The band is listed as follows: Steffen Kummerer - Vocals-Guitars, Tom Geldschlager - Guitars, Linus Klausenitzer - Bass, Sabastian Lanser - Drums 

Arrangement of the entire thing is credited to Obscura. No mention of Trujillo.

I have to say Tom, I know .... went down and things didn't turn out the way everyone wanted but... my friend, you should be incredibly proud of this album and the work you put into it. It is by far my favorite Obscura album. And I think it is probably the most coherent release by Obscura to date and your playing, because it is indeed really evident all over the album, is ....ing fantastic.


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## NaYoN (Feb 1, 2016)

Double A said:


> Just what I just got in the mail...
> 
> This album is my favorite out of all three. It is honestly fantastic start to finish.
> 
> The fractal Dimension T shirt with it is really nice.



It's their fourth album  don't forget about Retribution!


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## Double A (Feb 1, 2016)

Well, Retribution is an album. Haha.


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## Fountainhead (Feb 1, 2016)

I´m glad the writing-issue seems resolved at least and I´m REALLY glad about the positive feedback the album is getting, despite the controversy.

I´d love to let the other issues rest as well, but I can´t if he continues to lie in public. Allow me one last rant. 

Steffen seems to think because he prevented me from posting playthrough videos by having the label block all my past Obscura videos due to "copyright infringement" (meaning that if I post any more videos by the same "rights-owner" (which is relapse) my youtube channel will be closed) he can just go out and twist things his way just because he WANTS to be the one who recorded all those parts. 
I´d have loved to be the one who wrote and recorded "a transcendental serenade" (which is a ....ing ACE song IMO), but guess what- I´m not. You know what I mean? I also did NOTHING on "Ode to the sun" but do you see me taking credit for that? I mean, the whole thing is just absurd - they could´ve just credited me, make a decent post about my departure, put our faces in the ....ing booklet like any other band would do even if they got a new guitar player in the meantime - I mean, who the .... cares? Bands change members - big ....ing deal. 
But no, he choose to do the opposite of all that. First he claimed I didn´t write anything, now I´m fully credited. Then he claimed he rerecorded most of my parts, now he doesn´t ("Weltseele" is 15 minutes long, if you claim you played 80 percent of the album, that either includes this one or you suck at math - but now it´s suddenly 7 songs, including one I was never supposed to play on anyway). How the hell did he manage to rerecord all those songs when the latest mixes of the album that I got from Victor were done roughly 30 hours before he delivered the final master and those had none of the rerecorded parts he speaks off? He claimed he spent 2 additional weeks in the studio - when exactly would that have been when I got fired on the last day of mixing the album? He claimed Christian Muenzner apologized for having recommended me and asked to be back in the band, now he´s silent about it and those parts have been taken out of interviews. Why are there even different versions of the album credits and bio floating around, being sent to different magazines and blogs? Why does one of my guitar students get 1500+word "hatemail" by him, containing all of the above? Why does the drummer of his other band troll me on facebook while Linus and Sebastian have never said the same things anywhere? Why does he claim that I (having worked on roughly 50 albums with many many different people) am "not an engineer at any point" and why is that so important to him (who´s only ever recorded with two bands and all of those albums having been recorded and mixed by the same guy)? Why is it even important to him to make somebody else look bad? He´s the one who got what he wanted, a new Obscura album that HE can now go promote and sell all over the world and play gigs with. Fretless guitar on the recording or not, nothing´s stopping him from performing these songs, right? So what is the reason for all this bull.... that, at the end of the day, only diminishes the reputation of his band? 

Anyway, just to give you guys something specific on this issue,
here´s where I recognise my original takes in the final mix of "Sermon of the seven suns", and they are all fully fretless AND DOUBLED: rhythm 0.00-2.23, acoustic 3.08-3.49, rhythm 4.05-5.12 , 5.54-end, each riff running parellel with Steffen´s fretted guitar that sits in the middle of the mix. In all other parts I can´t tell wether it´s me or not, I sure as hell did record those parts though, fully aware that some may not be used. And obviously my solos are fretless as well. The fact that people even argue about wether it´s fretted or fretless only proves my point that the "fretless rhythm guitar didn´t work" argument is utter bull..... Believe me, if there´s fretless rhythm guitar in a deathmetal context where the rhythm guitar is at least double-tracked, you´ll hear IMMEDIATLY when it doesn´t work ;-) 

I could give you the same details about the other songs, if needed. For now I just hope everybody enjoys the album nonetheless.


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## NaYoN (Feb 1, 2016)

Fountainhead said:


> I´m glad the writing-issue seems resolved at least and I´m REALLY glad about the positive feedback the album is getting, despite the controversy.
> 
> I´d love to let the other issues rest as well, but I can´t if he continues to lie in public. Allow me one last rant.
> 
> ...



I feel you man, but I think some of the stuff Steffen said about exactly what parts are rerecorded or not is probably just casual conversation and handwaving away details - explaining the exact details of every single riff would probably get tiring if you did like 5 hour-long interviews a day (which he said to me before we started) and you'd probably just shorten the story. I'm not trying to defend him, but there's likely to be some human error there. 

As for the album credits and stuff, a lot of that kind of stuff tends to happen with labels, as labels have different distribution channels to send promos, physical mags get promos way earlier, then bigger sites like metalsucks and us, then smaller sites like random zines. Each outlet gets whatever promo is available at that time, physical mags often get incomplete versions of albums in terms of production. The credits also change over time as they're pressed into the booklet and if they don't fit some of it is cut etc. - there's a lot of stuff that happens behind the scenes there in my experience so the inconsistencies there aren't likely malice but just how the business operates.

I don't think he has the power to edit interviews after the fact, but who knows. As for the rest, I can't really say - that's between you and him.

Anyway, I made it a point in my review to highlight your playing and whatever is on the record or not, it sounds great! I love the album. In the end I don't think the average listener will realize who exactly recorded what part, though of course I understand that it matters to you. Sorry this all went south and whatnot.

Here's the review if you'd care to peruse it: http://www.heavyblogisheavy.com/2016/01/29/obscura-akroasis/


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## brutalwizard (Feb 2, 2016)

The whole album is just too good. The Fretless leads on this album has me wanting to get into fretless guitars so bad haha. Thanks for the insane amount of inspiration @fountainhead.


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## Chewy5150 (Feb 2, 2016)

The new album is amazing. All around good writing and musicianship. Now I totally want a fretless guitar haha.


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## NaYoN (Feb 2, 2016)

Chewy5150 said:


> The new album is amazing. All around good writing and musicianship. Now I totally want a fretless guitar haha.



I've had one for years, but I don't really know what to do with it! It's not easy to get a handle of.


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## Thorerges (Feb 2, 2016)

Man, Welteseele is the highlight of the record.


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## NaYoN (Feb 2, 2016)

Thorerges said:


> Man, Welteseele is the highlight of the record.



It's definitely the most impressive track, but being 15 minutes long it's not the easiest to listen to. I love the title track, Ode to the Sun and Sermon of the Seven Suns. Overall a great album.


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## Thorerges (Feb 2, 2016)

Steffens RAN guitars look ....ing cool. Sick signature model.


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## NaYoN (Feb 2, 2016)

On the interview he said he has a new one on the way with some pretty crazy specs. Apparently he's a fan of steinbergers, so it might be a fretless.

edit: headless not fretless!


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## anomynous (Feb 2, 2016)

NaYoN said:


> On the interview he said he has a new one on the way with some pretty crazy specs. Apparently he's a fan of steinbergers, *so it might be a fretless*.




After all that's been said in this thread


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## NaYoN (Feb 2, 2016)

anomynous said:


> After all that's been said in this thread



ugh, I meant headless


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## Thorerges (Feb 2, 2016)

NaYoN said:


> On the interview he said he has a new one on the way with some pretty crazy specs. Apparently he's a fan of steinbergers, so it might be a fretless.
> 
> edit: headless not fretless!



Is it a 6 or 7 string?


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## Double A (Feb 2, 2016)

I seriously haven't stopped listening to this since last night besides 2 hours to finish demo-ing a new song for my band. It is one of those albums I hope i never get sick of.

@Thorerges: Did you listen to Nayon's interview? Steffen says he much prefers 6 strings but 7 just makes more sense to use. He didn't mention any of the specs for his new guitar in the interview.


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## Thorerges (Feb 2, 2016)

Double A said:


> I seriously haven't stopped listening to this since last night besides 2 hours to finish demo-ing a new song for my band. It is one of those albums I hope i never get sick of.
> 
> @Thorerges: Did you listen to Nayon's interview? Steffen says he much prefers 6 strings but 7 just makes more sense to use. He didn't mention any of the specs for his new guitar in the interview.



I literally had no time to listen to the interview or the album besides one track. 

Yes I spoke to Steffen some time ago, he said that 7 strings were very uncomfortable live for him. However, the entire Omnivium album is written in 7 strings, and at least 2 tracks on Weltseele as well - so maybe he'll just stick to that since he has to play Omnivium live?


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## TheHandOfStone (Feb 3, 2016)

Listening to the final tracks I haven't heard already now. Another fantastic album from these guys!


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## NaYoN (Feb 3, 2016)

New track Fractal Dimension

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhgUvbJ_zU4


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## Thorerges (Feb 4, 2016)

NaYoN said:


> New track Fractal Dimension
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhgUvbJ_zU4



Sounds exactly like Necrophagist.


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## chopeth (Feb 4, 2016)

Is it me or obscura have sensibly lost a big deal of their compositive power after Chris and Hannes left? Everybody says this is their best album but imo it's not even close to the masterpiece Omnivium. Maybe I need a few more listens though...


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## Mwoit (Feb 4, 2016)

Everyone's gonna hate me, but I thought Cosmogenesis was the best, then Omnivium was alright.


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## MAJ Meadows SF (Feb 4, 2016)

Thorerges said:


> Sounds exactly like Necrophagist.


 
I am fine with this. Wait, Necro-who?


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## Double A (Feb 4, 2016)

chopeth said:


> Is it me or obscura have sensibly lost a big deal of their compositive power after Chris and Hannes left? Everybody says this is their best album but imo it's not even close to the masterpiece Omnivium. Maybe I need a few more listens though...


Honestly I like the song writing here more. I will agree with Steffen from Nayon's interview, Omnivium was ....ing stellar but it was tiring and most of the songs had no breathing room and way less dynamics. It was just 800 bpm full throttle. This album has breathing room and is much more enjoyable to me because of it. I missed the Cynic inspired material that was mostly absent from Omnivium.


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## NaYoN (Feb 4, 2016)

New track Perpetual Infinity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DehswXnnSpU


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## brutalwizard (Feb 4, 2016)

Full stream has been out for a few days.

Arkoasis: Stream the New Obscura Album in its Entirety! - MetalSucks


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## feraledge (Feb 4, 2016)

Sucks about the drama with all of this, Steffan might be a total dick but credit where it's due: dude knows how to assemble some musicians even if he's the ultimate reason why they don't stay. 
Considering the consistency in album layout and progression between Cosmogenesis, Omnivium, Hannes' solo album, and Alkaloid (though Dyson Sphere is a bit of a detour), it looks like that track vibe formula is Hannes' baby. This is a bit different in pacing for me, not a bad thing though. 
The title track is the winner for me, but I have no complaints about the album. That song just has literally everything I want from Obscura: crushing brutality, perfect amount and placement of harmony, atmospheric riffs with blasts, and the bass work seals the deal. 
I hope it's not all soured for Fountainhead, Welteseele is a hell of an orchestration. It doesn't feel like a 15 minute song which means a lot to me. I love the black metal orchestra section in the middle. 
Great album!


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## Randy (Feb 4, 2016)

I love Obscura but there's a whole lotta stuff that doesn't sound CLOSE to being played back at the same speed it was recorded.


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## takotakumi (Feb 4, 2016)

feraledge said:


> It doesn't feel like a 15 minute song which means a lot to me. I love the black metal orchestra section in the middle.
> Great album!



Thought the same! Its actually the song I've been repeating most haha
Everytime it ends I'm like...damn those were the fastest 15 mins ever.
Fountainhead is a genius!!


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## Double A (Feb 4, 2016)

Randy said:


> I love Obscura but there's a whole lotta stuff that doesn't sound CLOSE to being played back at the same speed it was recorded.


Really? Can you point them out?


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## wannabguitarist (Feb 4, 2016)

Randy said:


> I love Obscura but there's a whole lotta stuff that doesn't sound CLOSE to being played back at the same speed it was recorded.



Where? That's disappointing


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## Fountainhead (Feb 4, 2016)

> Thought the same! Its actually the song I've been repeating most haha
> Everytime it ends I'm like...damn those were the fastest 15 mins ever.
> Fountainhead is a genius!!


Wow, thank you guys so much!!!


Oh and since they now also released "Fractal Dimension": I want to make it crystal-clear that the intro and outro solos are NOT me and I do not wish to be associated with those by accident. This is one of the songs where my parts (rhythm and lead) are all fretless though. First riff in the song for example, or the low heavy section after my long solo in the middle section.....still think fretless on a deathmetal album doesn´t work?


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## Thorerges (Feb 5, 2016)

chopeth said:


> Is it me or obscura have sensibly lost a big deal of their compositive power after Chris and Hannes left? Everybody says this is their best album but imo it's not even close to the masterpiece Omnivium. Maybe I need a few more listens though...



Of course they did. Listen, in my respectful opinion: Linus Klausinitzer is no Hannes Grossmann or Morean. In fact, despite his track record with Alkaloid and Noneuclid (both of these bands are super-sophisticated songwriters, in my judgement), he hasn't written any music for either of them. Sure, he can play the material with these bands but writing it is completely different.

Fact of the matter is that Tech Death is a near-insignificant niche genre, with a somewhat large fanbase but limited supply of musicians. Hannes and Christian are both innovators in this field, they participated (at least by playing/touring) with the founding members of Necrophagist, and literally took this style of music morphed it into Obscura. 

I definitely wouldn't compare to Akroasis to Omnivium. At least not through my listening experience thus far. 

However, let me stay that I generally prefer longer songs with tricky sections and novel riffs. This is what Hannes excels at (and Christian writes incredible riffs). Many people however, will find that Akroasis hits a good nerve for them. I prefer Omnivium, it is a classic and one of the best records of our time - but Akroasis is a different beast altogether, with a more straightforward and diverse approach that might appeal to more people.


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## Thorerges (Feb 5, 2016)

Fountainhead said:


> Wow, thank you guys so much!!!



Weltseele is genius. I am hoping you release more metal music with this kind of stringed section, its insane.


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## Thorerges (Feb 5, 2016)

Fountainhead said:


> Oh and since they now also released "Fractal Dimension": I want to make it crystal-clear that the intro and outro solos are NOT me and I do not wish to be associated with those by accident. This is one of the songs where my parts (rhythm and lead) are all fretless though. First riff in the song for example, or the low heavy section after my long solo in the middle section.....still think fretless on a deathmetal album doesn´t work?



I thought that they sounded too similar to Necrophagist to be you. Also your leads have this really unique, melodic approach to them that is very much yours. Although it ended sourly, I am very happy with Weltseele to say the least!!!


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## coffeeflush (Feb 5, 2016)

Heard the album in its entirity today, 
I have to say, Fountainheads mixing (idk if he was involved in mixing) and melodic approach influence are fairly obvious. So different from the older Obscura solos.

The fretless guitar and bass parts fit amazingly well and sound so good. Its too bad these guys didn't work further with fountainhead (their loss) as this album will become a metal classic (imo)


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## Fountainhead (Feb 5, 2016)

Coffeeflush - thanks a lot! I wasn´t involved in the mixing of this album, though - apart from getting on Victor´s nerves with 10000 suggestions ;-)


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## feraledge (Feb 5, 2016)

Randy said:


> I love Obscura but there's a whole lotta stuff that doesn't sound CLOSE to being played back at the same speed it was recorded.



I can't tell if this is meant to be a compliment or accusation.


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## beerandbeards (Feb 5, 2016)

I wasn't too familiar with Obscura before this album but I wanted to give it a chance since I haven't had a new release from bands I enjoy for a while Obviously these guys can play (dude tabbed out the Death tab book ). It keeps my ears interested as each track flows, not boring. Long story short... I'm enjoying it thus far.


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## Double A (Feb 5, 2016)

feraledge said:


> I can't tell if this is meant to be a compliment or accusation.


Me neither. It is not something you just say then don't back up. But, I have seen Obscura live in an intimate setting and I know they can play the Omnivium stuff in their sleep so idk...


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## feraledge (Feb 5, 2016)

Double A said:


> Me neither. It is not something you just say then don't back up. But, I have seen Obscura live in an intimate setting and I know they can play the Omnivium stuff in their sleep so idk...



It's a strange cliff hanger, but yeah, I've seen these dudes pull this stuff off without question. Not the newest stuff obviously, but I have zero reason to question it.


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## CreptorStatus (Feb 5, 2016)

Randy said:


> I love Obscura but there's a whole lotta stuff that doesn't sound CLOSE to being played back at the same speed it was recorded.



I'm not exactly sure what you mean but are you saying some of the riffs were recorded at a slower tempo then sped up?

If so I really can't hear it.. 

But from what I understood that kind of studio magic will make guitar riffs sound like MIDI because of how full each individual note will sound. This process also eliminates the pick attack and the natural fretting sound of your fingers hitting and leaving a string. For example: any Within the Ruins song -

https://youtu.be/9RCBA2Q0LLM?t=40s


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## NoodleFace (Feb 5, 2016)

Been an Obscura fan for a long time and I'm loving this album. To me the band gets better with each album they release, regardless of who their lead guitar player is. I love this stuff.

I also love the title track on this album, can't get enough of it.


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## Tech Wrath (Feb 5, 2016)

Amazing album, Tom's work sounds phenomenal on this release. Weltseele was a stellar track, great work! Don't think Obscura's next album will top this without you Tom!


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## Sammy J (Feb 6, 2016)

So, if Fountainhead and Munzer are mates, plus they each know and have worked with either Marco Minneman or Hannes Grossman...surely that 3 piece plus Thessling, or another standout bass player could form a pretty amazing tech death band. Get a capable vocalist and you're done!


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## anomynous (Feb 7, 2016)

The two bonus tracks are weird, because they both work as finales to the album. Have to say the origin of primal expression is better though.


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## MFB (Feb 7, 2016)

So is this out yet and I'm an idiot, cause I could've sworn the release date was the 16th? If not then don't mind me, I just wanna make sure I don't have to add another album to my growing list of "Oh right, that came out."


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## Thorerges (Feb 7, 2016)

Gonna take me a while to dig deep into this album. So far Weltseele, Sermon, Akroasis re my favorites.


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## Double A (Feb 7, 2016)

I am all about dat Ode to the Sun.


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## Sammy J (Feb 8, 2016)

Whole album rips, but Ten Sepiroth is probably my favourite cut. That little bass twang gets me in my feels haha.


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## nutsock (Feb 8, 2016)

Double A said:


> I am all about dat Ode to the Sun.



+1
And Fractal Dimensional for me also


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## Rosal76 (Feb 8, 2016)

You know this Obscura fan spent some money.  * These are not mine.

Picture is from Obscura's Facebook page.


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## wannabguitarist (Feb 8, 2016)

Does the bonus track remind anyone else of Death?


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## Sammy J (Feb 8, 2016)

Yeah, strong TSOP era Death vibe on 'The Origin of Primal Expression'.


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## Thorerges (Feb 10, 2016)

nutsock said:


> +1
> And Fractal Dimensional for me also



The solo on that track is simply genius. Unbelievable. For a second it reminded me of Moreans style, but with so much melody and steve vai attitude. Very nicely done. 

Fountainhead has played the best leads on an Obscura record ever.


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## sakeido (Feb 13, 2016)

Any of you guys get the tab book? ...any chance I could get just the lead guitar tab for the Akroasis intro? haven't heard a bit of wheedly wheedly woo I've wanted to learn in a while but run is so tasty in context


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## takotakumi (Feb 13, 2016)

sakeido said:


> Any of you guys get the tab book? ...any chance I could get just the lead guitar tab for the Akroasis intro? haven't heard a bit of wheedly wheedly woo I've wanted to learn in a while but run is so tasty in context



They sent an email 2 days ago stating that there was a problem with the production process, thus they will ship it until 2/16...


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## Thorerges (Feb 15, 2016)

For those who might be interested, Morean and Danny Tunker have been writing Alkaloid songs with Hannes. We might be getting 2 exceptional prog death releases in 2016!


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## takotakumi (Feb 16, 2016)

Thorerges said:


> For those who might be interested, Morean and Danny Tunker have been writing Alkaloid songs with Hannes. We might be getting 2 exceptional prog death releases in 2016!



I saw him last year with aborted and he said that they had material for like 9 more songs  This was around march-april before he left aborted

Another Alkaloid record for this year would be superb


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## Thorerges (Feb 16, 2016)

takotakumi said:


> I saw him last year with aborted and he said that they had material for like 9 more songs  This was around march-april before he left aborted
> 
> Another Alkaloid record for this year would be superb



Yea, it's a terrifically productive band. Hannes and Morean are 2 prodigious songwriters who write a TON of songs (also happen to be some of my favorite). Now that Danny has left Aborted and can concentrate fully on the Alkaloid stuff, he'll be writing a lot as well. I won't expect much from Linus (too busy) and Muenzner has this new power metal band (although maybe a few riffs?), but its very exciting. 

I honestly am not feeling this Obscura record as I did with Omnivium, maybe it needs more time - a couple of good tracks but so far nothing is sticking besides Weltseele.


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## feraledge (Feb 17, 2016)

Probably near 20 listens in on the album at this point. Akroasis gets me every time, but have to admit that Weltseele is sneaking up there consistently in terms of favorite tracks. Such an awesome album.


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## chopeth (Feb 17, 2016)

Thorerges said:


> I honestly am not feeling this Obscura record as I did with Omnivium, maybe it needs more time - a couple of good tracks but so far nothing is sticking besides Weltseele.



That's what I think too, as I said before, not so many mindblowing moments in this album as in Omnivium, but a few incredible songs, especially Weltseele. Let's see after a dozen on listens with CD and book, it maybe grows on me a bit more.


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## Rosal76 (Feb 17, 2016)

chopeth said:


> Let's see after a dozen on listens with CD and book, it maybe grows on me a bit more.





That's what happened when I purchased/first listened to Necrophagist's Epitaph and Obscura's Cosmogenesis album. I purchased the CD's first and agreed that both bands have enormous amounts of talent but they weren't albums I was attached to like say, Megadeth's Rust in peace album, which is my all time favorite heavy metal album. But then I purchased the guitar tab books for Epitaph and Cosmogenesis and now, they're like 2 of my favorite albums, or at least technical/progressive death metal albums to listen to and play guitar from.


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## chopeth (Feb 17, 2016)

Rosal76 said:


> That's what happened when I purchased/first listened to Necrophagist's Epitaph and Obscura's Cosmogenesis album. I purchased the CD's first and agreed that both bands have enormous amounts of talent but they weren't albums I was attached to like say, Megadeth's Rust in peace album, which is my all time favorite heavy metal album. But then I purchased the guitar tab books for Epitaph and Cosmogenesis and now, they're like 2 of my favorite albums, or at least technical/progressive death metal albums to listen to and play guitar from.



I wish I had the same reaction as with Epitaph, Cosmogenesis or RIP, man, those albums were utter love at first listen for me. I think it's not gonna happen here, though I love Obscura and will keep on supporting their music. I wouldn't say Akroasis is bad, gosh, these Fountainhead solos drive me nuts, love them, but I opine the rhythm parts are a lot weaker than in older albums.


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## gunch (Feb 17, 2016)

The title track rips


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## Thorerges (Feb 18, 2016)

silverabyss said:


> The title track rips



One of the better tracks on the album for sure.


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## MrPepperoniNipples (Feb 18, 2016)

Lots of hype for Weltsteele but I wasn't really feeling it, for me the highlight of the album was the second half of the first guitar solo on Sermon. Definitely my favorite song.

Fountainhead's leads were pretty hit or miss for me, when they were great they were incredible but otherwise I thought they were 'eh.' Better than Steffen's though, haha, I think he should leave the lead work to Robert on the next one.


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## Thorerges (Feb 24, 2016)

MrPepperoniNipples said:


> Lots of hype for Weltsteele but I wasn't really feeling it, for me the highlight of the album was the second half of the first guitar solo on Sermon. Definitely my favorite song.
> 
> Fountainhead's leads were pretty hit or miss for me, when they were great they were incredible but otherwise I thought they were 'eh.' Better than Steffen's though, haha, I think he should leave the lead work to Robert on the next one.



How many leads does steffen play? I can only count him playing 1 solo the entire album. 

Also, Weltseele just needs a bit of time, definitely my favorite along with fractal dimension, but theyre not easy to listen to.


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## vm27 (Feb 26, 2016)

I've been listening to the cd for almost two weeks and Im still enjoying it. The title track kicks ass especially the solo, can't get enough of it. My other favorite tracks would be Sermon Of the Seven Suns and Ten Sepiroth. Tom's lead work are very intresting. I originally thought it will sound odd with a techdeath band but he manages to create some beautiful melodies. Weltseele, intresting track but sounds very different from the rest of the track, not really surprising. I know the bonus track is a DEATH reimagined song but sounds like it could been the intro for Arkoasis, I wonder why they didn't include it on the title track. Overall it's a great album.


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## vm27 (Feb 26, 2016)

chopeth said:


> I wish I had the same reaction as with Epitaph, Cosmogenesis or RIP, man, those albums were utter love at first listen for me. I think it's not gonna happen here, though I love Obscura and will keep on supporting their music. I wouldn't say Akroasis is bad, gosh, these Fountainhead solos drive me nuts, love them, but I opine the rhythm parts are a lot weaker than in older albums.


That's what I thought too, it's a lot less technical and progressive than Omnivium, but on par with Cosmogenesis in terms of melodies.


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## Petef2007 (Feb 26, 2016)

After spending time with Akroasis, here's my thoughts on it. 

Its an ok album. The melodies are nice. Some of the riffs are cool. The fretless overload takes a bit of getting used to with both guitars AND bass. 

Sadly, to me it seems like a step back in terms of quality. I mean, there's still greatness on the record - Sermon, the title track and Perpetual Infinity in particular - but honestly, the record Hannes put out sounds more Obscura-y to me than Akroasis. 

I'm not knocking the album. It just wasn't quite what I was expecting from Obscura after Omnivium, although I know the chief songwriters from that album weren't involved in this one. 

I think I'd have been more open and welcoming to it if it had come between Cosmogenesis and Omnivium. There's things on the album that strike me as being influenced by both of those records, and it sounds more like a transitional album to me. Personally, the issue I have with Akroasis is that if I want the more melodic tech death, Cosmogenesis does it better...if I want the hyper tech craziness, Omnivium excels at it. Akroasis seems to be a bit from one and a bit from the other.

I haven't got through Weltseele yet, I'm taking that one bit by bit as 15 full minutes of tech death is a bit much to digest in a few sittings, so can't comment fully on that one yet. 

As mentioned by no means saying it's a bad album, or knocking it, it just didn't blow me away like the last 2 did.


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## chopeth (Mar 1, 2016)




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## takotakumi (Mar 1, 2016)

chopeth said:


>



Nice dude! 

I'm looking forward to getting mine hopefully this or next week


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## Rosal76 (Mar 1, 2016)

takotakumi said:


> I'm looking forward to getting mine hopefully this or next week





Takotakumi, did Obscura send you a Email with a tracking number for your order? The reason I'm asking is because I also ordered the book and they sent me a, "Your order is complete Email" which I'm happy they sent but I have no tracking number and therefore, I have no idea where the book is it transit and when I will get it. 

Chopeth, what songs are you gonna learn first?


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## takotakumi (Mar 1, 2016)

Rosal76 said:


> Takotakumi, did Obscura Email you a tracking number for your order? The reason I'm asking is because I also ordered the book and they sent me a, "Your order is complete Email" which I'm happy they sent but I have no tracking number and therefore, I have no idea where the book is it transit and when I will get it.



Same thing happened to me. I think they never send a tracking number
because the same happened when they released the first omnivium tabbook.
I ordered it, got a confirmation email and then I just waited haha

The sent the following email on feb 11 though:

Thank you again for your order! Unfortunately there was a problem in the production process of the Akroasis Tab Book. Because of this your order will be sent on 02/16/16. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. We are deeply sorry for this and will add some special goodies to your package.

Thank you for your support!!

If you are in the US like me I think we should get it this or next week.
I got my omnivium copy around 3 weeks after I placed the order from what I remember...


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## Rosal76 (Mar 1, 2016)

takotakumi said:


> If you are in the US like me I think we should get it this or next week.





Man, I hope so. I've been dying to learn some new Obscura music. Another reason I asked about the Email is because I was under the impression that since you know that we'll be getting the book this or next week, that Obscura did indeed send you a tracking number. I never know when I'll receive something in the mail unless I have a tracking number.



takotakumi said:


> I got my omnivium copy around 3 weeks after I placed the order from what I remember...



You got lucky. I got mine after 2 months/2 days. No lie. What happened was is that Obscura sold out on the first printing and needed time to reprint the 2nd editions. I got a 2nd edition printing. I didn't mind the waiting time but the fact of not knowing they were printing 2nd editions is what was killing me because I thought the book was lost in transit.


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## takotakumi (Mar 1, 2016)

Rosal76 said:


> Man, I hope so. I've been dying to learn some new Obscura music. Another reason I asked about the Email is because I was under the impression that since you know that we'll be getting the book this or next week, that Obscura did indeed send you a tracking number. I never know when I'll receive something in the mail unless I have a tracking number.
> 
> 
> 
> You got lucky. I got mine after 2 months/2 days. No lie. What happened was is that Obscura sold out on the first printing and needed time to reprint the 2nd editions. I got a 2nd edition printing. I didn't mind the waiting time but the fact of not knowing they were printing 2nd editions is what was killing me because I thought the book was lost in transit.



I am really hoping to the 2-4 weeks delivery since that should be more than enough...

It took a guitar I ordered from italy 5 days to reach my house so that's
why I am having high hopes for a quicker delivery time.


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## chopeth (Mar 1, 2016)

Rosal76 said:


> Chopeth, what songs are you gonna learn first?



I barely know the songs yet but I guess I have and appointment with frustration trying to learn those songs tonight after my wife goes to bed


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## Thorerges (Mar 2, 2016)

Petef2007 said:


> After spending time with Akroasis, here's my thoughts on it.
> 
> Its an ok album. The melodies are nice. Some of the riffs are cool. The fretless overload takes a bit of getting used to with both guitars AND bass.



I only heard fretless rhythm on "Fractal Dimension", haven't really noticed fretless rhythm guitars on any other track to be honest. 



Petef2007 said:


> Sadly, to me it seems like a step back in terms of quality. I mean, there's still greatness on the record - Sermon, the title track and Perpetual Infinity in particular - but honestly, the record Hannes put out sounds more Obscura-y to me than Akroasis.




I definitely agree that Hannes wrote a more Obscura sounding album that this one. Probably has more to do with the fact that he wrote most of the material however. 




Petef2007 said:


> I'm not knocking the album. It just wasn't quite what I was expecting from Obscura after Omnivium, although I know the chief songwriters from that album weren't involved in this one.
> 
> I think I'd have been more open and welcoming to it if it had come between Cosmogenesis and Omnivium. There's things on the album that strike me as being influenced by both of those records, and it sounds more like a transitional album to me. Personally, the issue I have with Akroasis is that if I want the more melodic tech death, Cosmogenesis does it better...if I want the hyper tech craziness, Omnivium excels at it. Akroasis seems to be a bit from one and a bit from the other.



Nail on head in my opinion. I actually listened to Cosmogenesis in its entirety to remember how I was blown away. Akroasis isn't terrible, just not as breathtaking as the first 2 records.


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## chopeth (Mar 3, 2016)

The songs look more doable for mortals, at least the first two I have tried, Sermon and Ode. It's finally growing on me, and reading this cool interview helped understanding the approach to Akroasis.

http://deadrhetoric.com/features/obscura-high-tech-cosmos-part-i/


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## takotakumi (Mar 5, 2016)

Looks like I have homework to do DDD






Rosal76 you should have yours soon!

Seems like my expectancy time worked


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## anomynous (Mar 5, 2016)

Former Obscura Guitarist Tom Geldschläger Has Choice Words About Frontman Steffen Kummerer - MetalSucks



curious if this is true, because that would have been cool to see (No offense Tom)



EDIT: I'm talking about the comment I linked to, not the article. David Davidson was supposed to be the fill in


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## Thorerges (Mar 5, 2016)

anomynous said:


> Former Obscura Guitarist Tom Geldschläger Has Choice Words About Frontman Steffen Kummerer - MetalSucks
> 
> 
> 
> curious if this is true, because that would have been cool to see (No offense Tom)



As much as I feel for Fountainhead to have to deal with this ...., Hannes and Chris still recorded 2 amazing albums with Steffen over a 5 year period. My understanding is that Hannes did not want to be held back on songwriting and expanding the sound and dynamics of Obscuras sound, obviously he was not interested in playing tech-death the way Steffen did. Chris sounded like he was getting tired of the whole tech-death thing anyway, I remember he said he enjoyed clean vocals more than brutal ones - and seeing his new band, this is hardly surprising. 

Now, I don't doubt that Steffen is hard to work with - thats probably what prompted these 2 guys to leave anyway. The way Obscura handled a few things is a bit puzzling to me (not mentioning Fountainheads departure for example) - but given the exploits of both Hannes and Chris since they left, it seemed that putting up with a hard attitude and working so hard on something they didn't believe in anymore was just not worth it. 

I actually still haven't gotten into Akroasis. It's a 'fun' tech-death record. However, 'The Monist', 'Ode To Sun', 'Perpetual Infinity' just seem like weak, weak songs compared to the last 2 albums. The riffs in particular, are pretty ....ing one-dimensional compared to the last album, this is my biggest problem. The songs are more dynamic, but then again they have the same acoustic section mid-song like 4 times. Also, the progginess element has been diminished substantially. 

I will say however, the highest points on this record for me are when Fountainhead shines, because I have never heard anything like his playing on a death metal record. Weltseele was an incredible piece of music. Fractal Dimension is another major highlight for me (which ends too early, I felt they could've taken the last few riffs and extended the song an extra minute). The title track is awesome, but also - not exactly comparable to Septuagint or Universe Momentum at all.

Anyways, my rant over. Maybe I'll get into Akroasis and the new Obscura sound in the future, but for now I'll listen to the older stuff.


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## Rosal76 (Mar 5, 2016)

takotakumi said:


> Looks like I have homework to do DDD



Awesome! What song are ya gonna start on?



takotakumi said:


> Rosal76 you should have yours soon!



Man, I hope so. I'm like getting a serious case of Obscura withdrawal here. 

In the Email they sent me, they said they were gonna send some extra goodies in the package for individuals who ordered the book. What were the goodies that they sent?


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## chopeth (Mar 5, 2016)

Rosal76 said:


> Awesome! What song are ya gonna start on?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



plectum, poster and stickers for me


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## anomynous (Mar 5, 2016)

Thorerges said:


> As much as I feel for Fountainhead to have to deal with this ...., Hannes and Chris still recorded 2 amazing albums with Steffen over a 5 year period. My understanding is that Hannes did not want to be held back on songwriting and expanding the sound and dynamics of Obscuras sound, obviously he was not interested in playing tech-death the way Steffen did. Chris sounded like he was getting tired of the whole tech-death thing anyway, I remember he said he enjoyed clean vocals more than brutal ones - and seeing his new band, this is hardly surprising.
> 
> Now, I don't doubt that Steffen is hard to work with - thats probably what prompted these 2 guys to leave anyway. The way Obscura handled a few things is a bit puzzling to me (not mentioning Fountainheads departure for example) - but given the exploits of both Hannes and Chris since they left, it seemed that putting up with a hard attitude and working so hard on something they didn't believe in anymore was just not worth it.
> 
> ...




I was mainly referring to the comment I linked to saying David Davidson was going to fill in.


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## Petef2007 (Mar 6, 2016)

Plectrum, poster and stickers with my book also. 

The little commentaries at the end of each song are kinda cool. Even if Akroasis doesn't sound even slightly influenced by Devin's Ocean Machine record. 

The drama surrounding this album is getting a little ridiculous now though.


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## Rosal76 (Mar 6, 2016)

Got the book yesterday. 

To the guys who have the book. On the first page for the solo for the song Akroasis, do any of you know what the single "P's" stand for in the first bar? 

I know it's not a pinch harmonic because it would sat P.H.
I know it's not palm mute because it would say P.M.
I know it's not a pull off because there isn't a second note to pull off to.

Any of you guys know what it is?


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## Fountainhead (Mar 6, 2016)

anomynous said:


> Former Obscura Guitarist Tom Geldschläger Has Choice Words About Frontman Steffen Kummerer - MetalSucks
> 
> 
> 
> curious if this is true, because that would have been cool to see (No offense Tom)



I have to say that metalsucks are just in it for the clicks and cheap headlines. What they completely left out of this article is the fact that my interview for Londonmetalmonthly is a RESPONSE to Steffen Kummerer´s incredible unprofessional (and unprovoked) accusations and career-hurting bull.... from his own interview in the LMM issue before (and which you can look up online). The magazine kindly asked me to set the record straight about these things afterwards, so I did . metalsucks then jumped on it, smelling a headline they could exploit.
Be that as it may, this wasn´t the only interview of this kind. In the most recent issue of german "Rock Hard" magazing for example he is giving credit to himself and Rafael Trujilo(!) for writing and recording "Weltseele", among other things. Fortunatly, there are laws against this kind of behaviour and since it´s easily proofable that he´s spreading lies on purpose, the german police will end up investigating the issue. In the meantime, I´ll keep it as before: If Steffen keeps spreading bull.... like this, and the magazines themselves ask me to set the record straight, I will.


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## chopeth (Mar 6, 2016)

Petef2007 said:


> The little commentaries at the end of each song are kinda cool.



I don't know about Cosmogenesis but they're in the Omnivium book too.



Fountainhead said:


> I have to say that metalsucks are just in it for the clicks and cheap headlines. What they completely left out of this article is the fact that my interview for Londonmetalmonthly is a RESPONSE to Steffen Kummerer´s incredible unprofessional (and unprovoked) accusations and career-hurting bull.... from his own interview in the LMM issue before (and which you can look up online). The magazine kindly asked me to set the record straight about these things afterwards, so I did . metalsucks then jumped on it, smelling a headline they could exploit.
> Be that as it may, this wasn´t the only interview of this kind. In the most recent issue of german "Rock Hard" magazing for example he is giving credit to himself and Rafael Trujilo(!) for writing and recording "Weltseele", among other things. Fortunatly, there are laws against this kind of behaviour and since it´s easily proofable that he´s spreading lies on purpose, the german police will end up investigating the issue. In the meantime, I´ll keep it as before: If Steffen keeps spreading bull.... like this, and the magazines themselves ask me to set the record straight, I will.



No offence, Tom, you are absolutely in your right to do that and I only get a glimpse of the pain and hatred all these lies and manipulations are causing you. I understand this is motivating you to actively combat anything suspiciously told about the album, but I think a Muenzner "approach" towards Kummerer here would help you better emotionally. I see both problems aren't even comparable, but I think the solution is equally suitable. 

On a side note, the more I listen to the album, the more I think your work in Akroasis is IRREPLACEABLE.


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## takotakumi (Mar 7, 2016)

Rosal76 said:


> Awesome! What song are ya gonna start on?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



For now I've been messing around with a couple of riffs from weltseele, ode, monist but I've been dealing mostly with that intro lead from ten sepiroth.
That lead is reaaaaaally hard but I think I can nail it if I keep practicing  

They added an Akroasis Poster, 4 Obscura album stickers, and another Obscura sticker.


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## takotakumi (Mar 7, 2016)

Just wanted to share some find...

I was looking for some cosmogenesis tabs on ultimate guitar and found that someone posted all of akroasis guitar pro tabs as well   

I was kinda mad at first since I JUST got the tab book but this means I do not have to scan them to view them in a larger screen hehe

I have not tried them though since I'm still working, gonna check them later tonight if the files work. There are some comments of people saying they have errors loading but dunno if it's the typical error of people trying to open GP6 tabs with GP5...

EDIT UPDATEE********

THEY ALL WORK!


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## OmegaSlayer (Mar 12, 2016)

I'd like to get back the discussion to music. 
Tom, you mentioned in the early pages of this topic that in the video of Akroàsis, the sweep section is not played in the position you played it.
It starts on a G#-, but you don't play it on the first 3 strings, but on strings 2-3-4, am I correct?


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## chopeth (Mar 19, 2016)

Great interview of UG with Kummerer:

Steffen Kummerer is not your typical death metal guitar player. As the main architect for Obscura, the German technical death metal band who released "Akroasis," their sixth album, in February of this year, Kummerer has brought a level of complexity and intellectualism to the lyrics few other bands - in any style - have ever realized.

He based the lyrics on the writings of Arthur Schopenhauer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Friedrich Schelling, deep-thinking philosophers who spent their entire lives musing about the condition of the world and the people in it. This appealed to the guitarist.

"No one in the band had been interested in mass murder lyrics or the usual social politics," he says. "Or people that live in their own bubble and complain about former girlfriends or political topics. During the first years according to the music, the lyrics formed from a demo band to a more and more sophisticated direction. I am personally interested in those topics and ideas. I love to read ideas of the philosophers, but at the same time physics, astrophysics and religion. Sharing my personal views with an abstract or multilayered concept seems more honest than writing a fun story about murdering your neighbor with a baseball bat."

Kummerer brings those lyric concepts to "Akroasis," an album featuring an entirely new lineup but still maintaining the brutal elements of the previous records. Here, Steffen looks at the development of Obscura - as well as his membership in Thulcandra - and describes his vision for the band and the journey they've taken to arrive at their just-released sixth record.

UG: You actually started playing keyboards when you were nine. Why the change to guitar? 

SK: At that age I had been visiting a boarding school for musically talented children in southern Germany and learned to play the piano, sing in a choir, had my first steps in music theory and harmony. The biggest gift of that time was the training of my ears and hearing overall. I profit from that up to this date. When I was a teenager, extreme music attracted me more and more and to be honest, you cannot rock through Death or Dissection songs with a piano so I picked up my first electric guitar at the age of 16 and formed a few months later Illegimitation/Obscura which is still my first band.

What guitarists were you listening to? 

Pretty much different guitarists starting from - obviously - Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai and Chuck Schuldiner. As a songwriter and in terms of technics Paul Masvidal (Death/Cynic) and Jon Nödtveidt (Dissection) had a huge share of my work. Especially the eighth note riffing and tremolo techniques combined with more classic harmony work that blends through everything I write. A bit later, John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra opened a new world, Trilok Gurtu and Camel followed to get a different perspective to rhythm and song structures.
"Only a small part of our fans are interested in the lyrics butespecially that small group honors the work I put into every song"

When you formed Obscura, what was your vision for the band? 

Writing the music I like. When the band was formed, we had been teenagers listening to all kinds of different extreme music at that time and had to find our own musical direction within the first years. There was not the big aim to become an international touring act or play at this or that big festival. We just worked our way up. We have been grateful for our first tour, our first demo, later an album, a European tour, a second European tour and at a certain point we signed a record deal with Relapse Records and toured around the world. We entered chart positions with every record since and crawling up piece by piece. This attitude is still present and we still work to have things done, but moving forward every year.

You had read what these philosophers had written about? What touched you about their work? 

The universal thought within a macro and meta perspective is pretty much present within Goethe, Schelling or Schopenhauer. I did not read all of their works, but most of the known works. Combining those ideas with astrophysics seems rather coherent while adding religion might raise some eyebrows here and there. If you read a bit into the lyrics and combine a few hints, you realize that I invert the religious thoughts in a pretty much chaos-gnostic manner.

Did you think that basing lyrical content on the works of Goethe might be a bit too intellectual or somehow not metal enough for fans? 

No, I don't think so. Metal fans are pretty much underrated when it comes to those complex topics. If you like the music it doesn't matter if you are into the lyrics - at least within the prog and tech death scene. Only a small part of our fans are interested in the lyrics but especially that small group honors the work I put into every song and I am grateful for that.

What was it like recording the debut album "Retribution"? 

After recording "Illegimitation" in November 2003, this was our first experience in a big studio just a few months later. We recorded the album in Summer 2004 at Mastersound Studios with Alex Krull of Atrocity and Leave's Eyes. We had only limited time to record the album and had to choose the only wrong decision I regret in the history of Obscura.

What was that bad decision? 

Recording the album with an electronic drumkit. Jonas Baumgartl, drummer during the first five years, was a pretty much talented musician with a great groove. Unfortunately, it was completely ripped and the drum engineer put every hit 100 percent in the grid, deleted all kind of humanity from the drums and cranked it to the wall. Jonas recorded the preproduction for "Cosmogenesis" in 2006 and just listen to his drumming on "Incarnated." It is a shame and we even thought about rerecording the whole album, but it is what it is. We learned the hard way not to use electronic drums in a production.

How did you approach the recording? 

We had been a two-piece in the studio. Jonas recorded his drum parts and left the studio to drive home. I stayed and recorded bass, guitars and parts of the vocals. Stephan Bergbauer joined for a day and recorded "Hymn to a Noctunal Visitor" and V. Santura was part of the production as a friend and helped with some vocals at that time.

Did you like being in the studio? 

I learned a lot and Alex Krull and the engineers treated us very well. Although we were teenagers playing loud and extreme music, they treated us with respect and helped to get the best out of everyone. As a side note, Jeroen Paul Thesseling who recorded "Cosmogenesis" and "Omnivium" was meant to record "Retribution" in 2004. Unfortunately he was not available during scheduling conflicts with his work at that time, but we stayed in touch over the years and he joined Obscura in late 2007.

Were you comfortable in the studio? 

Yes and no. With the guitars and bass recordings, everything felt right and keeping the deadline was not a big deal. Recording vocals turned into an issue since it didn't feel right somehow. I just took over the position of a singer a few months before, so we doubled most of the vocals with V. Santura. It was a learning experience and helped to shape my singing pretty much in the end. The studio itself was absolutely professional and on a high standard with Alex Krull pushing us every day.

Did you know the kinds of guitar sounds you wanted to create? 

The idea was a pretty thick rhythm guitar sound in the vein of Death's "Human" and I think we came pretty close. For that kind of music, I think the guitar sound is killer. Combined with real drums, the record would have gained a wider audience I guess. The arrangements hadn't been that multilayered and the technique was not in focus and the songs had a different structure so the crushing, brutal so to say guitar sound was perfect. We used a Soldano amplifier and a Sansamp and recorded two rhythm guitars with each and added in the mix these two different guitar sounds wherever it was necessary or you needed four rhythm tracks - a technique I still work with up to "Akroasis," our new record.

Was there much experimenting with guitar sounds? Different pedals? Effects? EQs? 

For leads we used different analog pedals but no VST Plugins. The rhythm sound went through a long run of outboard equipment but aside from the Soldano and Sansamp for the main sound, I don't remember exactly what effects or EQs we used aside from an old Boss pedalboard for a few leads. That was a decade ago and I am getting old.

You've been playing Ran guitars from the beginning. What do you love about those guitars? 

When I was looking for the right guitar as a beginner, either the guitars looked pretty boring, sounded really bad or haven't been balanced at all. Around 2002 or 2003, I bought a pretty cheap guitar from the United States of the brand Hondo, Model H1 and figured the shape fit very well and the guitar seemed balanced although the body looked pretty extreme. The guitar sounded really bad. It had a built-in wrong intonation and turned out to be not a professional instrument.

What did you do then? 

A friend recommended Ran Guitars, a small custom shop from Poland, that built him a few axes over the years. So I decided to send the old Hondo as a blue pause to Ran and added the instructions: changes in shape, electrics and the neck I needed. A few months later I got the first out of a row of custom guitars I play up to this date. This first guitar I played during all Death DTA gigs and I loved the instrument as I did since the first day. It lasted 500 shows over a decade and is still in decent shape and good intonation with barely any tuning issues. The quality is perfect and that is the reason why I work with Ran for 13 years now.

"Humankind" is the first song from "Retribution." It's pretty insanely brutal. By choosing this as the opening track, was it meant to sort of introduce fans to the type of music they might be hearing on the album? 

The fastest track as opener followed by the slowest song to work with dynamics within the album track list is another example of ideas we established back in the days. We had an acoustic intro, but deleted it within the last day in the mix to get this straight in your face within one second vibe when you put the album in your player.

There are some cool harmony guitars in "Humankind." Can you talk a bit about recording harmony guitars and why you dig that sound?

A good song contains technique, harmony and melody from my understanding. And unison guitar lines seemed rather boring if it was not meant intentionally to focus on a brutal part or lead. Adding harmonies just gives a song another dimension and adds another level in my opinion.

How do you and Markus Lempsch work out guitar parts? How would you describe his role on the "Retribution" album?

Markus joined the band around one year after we recorded the album. He hadn't had any influence on the album. We recorded the preproduction tracks for "Cosmogenesis" and a few covers in 2006 before he moved to another city to work in the music business.

"Hymn to a Nocturnal Visitor" is kind of the epic song on the "Retribution" album. It is brutal but opens with those cool clean guitars and then goes into that wonderful breakdown around 2:27 again with clean guitars and cello from drummer Jonas Baumgartl. Where does that kind of music come from? Were you a fan of cello? 

Jonas plays cello excellent and actually that was his first instrument for years before he played drums. We used this instrument on our first demo as well as more of an homage to At the Gates I remember. Working with acoustic instruments started back then and we figured to gain more dynamics with strings and acoustic guitars. We brought this tradition back to life with our new album and finish it with the fifth record to keep things interesting.

What about some of the bands who emulated cello with Mellotron such as King Crimson or Genesis. Did those bands interest you at all?

Genesis and Peter Gabriel definitely, but our influence was clearly At the Gates and their earlier works.

"Sweet Silence" was a beautiful little instrumental with clean, picked guitars. Do you enjoy this side of guitar as well as the heavier, brutal riffs?

"Sweet Silence" turned to be the second instrumental for the band. On every record we kept one song instrumental: "And All Will Come to an End" ("Illegimitation"), "Orbital Elements" ("Cosmogenesis"), "A Transcendental Serenade" ("Omnivium") and "Origin of Primal Expression" ("Akroasis"). This was intentional to bring the focus back on the music or end the record smoothly. And yes, I love acoustic guitars and just bought a new Ibanez a few month ago.

Are you a fan of guitar instrumental music in general? 

Sometimes, I love Camel, an old prog rock band or Exivious but not those show off shred records. Interesting for two songs but then something is missing.

Do you ever listen to Jeff Beck? Steve Vai? Yngwie? 

Vai and Yngwie more often. "Fire & Ice" was the first Malmsteen record that really got me and later "Marching Out" and "Rising Force" turned into my faves. "Sex & Religion" of Steve Vai was on hot rotation for many years as well. Also Joe Satriani's "Surfing With the Alien" turned out to be one of the albums I jammed with a lot as a teenager. Good music.

Alexander Krull from Atrocity co-produced the album with the band at his Mastersound Studios. Why did you want to work with Alexander? What did he bring to the music? 

At the time we listened to Pestilence, Atheist, Death, Nocturnus and all of the old early '90s death metal bands that brought something new to the table. The first two albums of Atrocity, "Todessehnsucht" and "Hallucinations," have been pretty extreme so I reached out to him. I have been in touch with Eric Rutan and Mana Studios, but the flights to the United States have been out of our budget, so we had to turn that idea down pretty quickly. Alex brought his 20-year long experience into the band and helped us especially as an engineer and pushed us to record more and more takes to get the last bit out of the group, which was a job for sure.

The lineup of the band changed completely on the second album, "Cosmogenesis." Did playing with a new group of musicians change the direction of the music? 

Everyone in the band, past and present, had their share of the band's sound. The direction did not change but the approach how to play songs changed. When I first met Hannes Grossmann in late 2007, we played a show at Nürnberg Deathfest and pre-formed half of the songs that ended up on "Cosmogenesis." The songs have been the same but adding a fretless bass, neoclassic soloing and a drummer with a different groove and other approaches of playing blast beats, made them feel different. We pushed each other to come up with new ideas or just details. Everyone brought a few songs to the band; we all arranged the tracks together and shared thoughts on this and that. Good times and we made another step forward as a band and started to tour around the globe supporting "Cosmogenesis."

Guitarist Christian Münzner has monster chops and brings a sort of classical feel to the music and his solos. What was it like playing with Christian? 

Christian brought most of the lead guitars into "Cosmogenesis" and later "Omnivium," with killer performance and visionary ideas with a neoclassic feeling. We have known each other since 2006 when he was supposed to step in on a last minute job to help out Suffocation who we supported during their European tour. We became friends pretty quick and had been in touch also after the tour. It was a pleasure playing with him about five years in the band, sharing the stage on many tours and recording two great albums together. Good memories.

Christian also came from the school of John Petrucci, Paul Gilbert, et al. Did this impact on your playing in any way? 

Yes, I would say so. As a lead guitarist, he has more experience and knowledge, so I looked here and there upon his shoulder to understand a few systems he used and got into his perspective on harmony work. A few ideas had its share on my latest work for "Akroasis."

"Cosmogenesis" is a pretty complex track. Can you talk about how a song like that gets recorded?

This song actually let us choose 7-string guitars first to play it live and later for the following album "Omnivium." I wrote this piece on two different tuned 6-string guitars: one to D standard and one on A standard. To play this song live and not waste any time through changing guitars, we got 7-strings and played our set on one instead of two guitars. Aside from that, "Cosmgoenesis" has been recorded as any other song: first drums, then rhythm guitars followed by bass, leads and vocals.

Ron Jarzombek [WatchTower, Blotted Science] plays a remarkable solo on "Cosmogenesis." What was that like having Ron play the solo? 

Jeroen Paul Thesseling brought up the idea to ask Ron joining the band for a guest appearance and that's how we all got in touch with him. He sounds a bit like Brian May of Queen - epic, shredtastic and with ideas out of the box. He really brought a new level to the song. Aside from that, he is a very relaxed, down to earth person and visited one of our shows in Texas years ago. A real guitar hero for me.

Do you like working with outside musicians? 

That depends completely on the song or part. Usually, I rather work out something on my own instead of guest musicians. When it comes to strings or choirs, we have to work with more musicians since none of us has 10 different voices or plays all kinds of instruments. In general I don't like session work, projects or anything outside the band - the same goes for Obscura and Thulcandra. Those are the bands, this is the music they create and not what an outsider would bring in. That is the reason why there are no guest musicians on "Akroasis" aside from the string ensemble and choir.

Can you talk about your approach to soloing? Are they worked out? In the moment? 

During the last 14 years, I rather focused on playing rhythm guitars and singing along to this complex music. With every album I played a few more leads, learned more and used different techniques to solo overall. My leads are completely worked out and written down before I start recording. I try to pick up a melody or theme from the song and adapt it somehow by adding a few harmony lines and going with the flow of a certain part. There is no need to show off through every bar of a solo part. I rather keep it interesting or combine a few ideas.

Pick a song you did a solo on and explain what you did. 

For example, "Sermon of the Seven Suns" contains four lead sections while in the first half of the song I generate a theme during the second solo that gets picked up at the third lead section in a different rhythm and tempo. That keeps the solo somehow memorable but leaves room to shred at the same time. I am more interested in keeping it interesting, being able to play everything live and working with the song instead of making noises or throwing senseless arps in the bowl. 

Do you and Christian lay down your guitar parts separately? 

We share the songs to record, but you never hear two rhythm guitarists on the same song. We play pretty much different especially within rhythm guitars and it doesn't sound coherent if you have one guitarist left and the other one right in the panorama. On "Cosmogenesis," I recorded seven songs, Christian three and took over acoustic guitars and most of the leads. Within "Omnivium" we shared the songs the same. You can't hear who recorded which song I guess.

Jeroen Paul Thesseling plays fretless bass. How did that impact on the sound of the rhythm section? 

Pretty much since the fretless bass has more freedom to improvise. The "nearby" intonation brings a completely different vibe to the music and adds a different musical view. Especially within the guitars there was a change since the frequencies of the upper bass notes turned into the field of the rhythm guitars.

Were you a fan of fretless bass in general? Jaco Pastorius? Jack Bruce? 

Yes, but especially Steve DiGiorgio and Sean Malone had their impact with "Human" and "Focus."

Christian and drummer Hannes Grossman both wrote songs for "Cosmogenesis." Do you encourage the other members to write and bring in ideas? 

Yes. Christian brought "Universe Momentum" to the table while Hannes wrote a few other good songs. In the end we arranged it all together, but you can hear on "Cosmogenesis" where the songs come from I guess. Obscura is not a solo project and never has been. Everyone is welcome to bring in ideas if it fits. I have a clear vision where the band is going, so accepting a "no" sometimes is not easy but part of a band - for everyone.

"Orbital Elements" is another beautiful instrumental. Is your approach as a guitarist different on an instrumental versus a song where you're singing? 

No, writing an instrumental does not differ here. If the song itself is interesting enough, you don't need vocals or need to force a vocal line over it. On the other side sometimes there is no room in an arrangement to fit a singer quite naturally. That is a matter of feeling I would say.
"If you are honest to yourself, people realize that and respect this more than any plastic product for the mass that is shaped to sell"

Is there acoustic guitar on "Orbital Elements?" Do you like the acoustic guitar side of guitar playing? 

Yes, there is very clearly an acoustic guitar audible within the song. Acoustic instruments bring another dynamic dimension into a production and arrangement. Those sounds are not reproducible with an electric guitar - only if you use a midi-based generic sound, but that is not the point and does not make any sense. I love acoustic guitars since you cannot hide - this is pretty much pure musicianship without a row of effects - and it just a stripped-down melody played by one musician in a room. It brings the human factor to the music so to say.

"Omnivium" was the second part of a four-part album concept. Can you explain this concept? 

Roughly explained the four-album cycle is based on a life cycle divided into creation, evolution, developing consciousness and ends with the ultimate end - the apocalypse. "Cosmogenesis" was represented with a blue schematic color throughout the artwork; "Omnivium" was green; "Akroasis" was yellow and the last album is going to be red. All of the records contain links in-between music, lyrics and artwork and especially the lyrics stick the concept together. They are based on three entities - philosophy, religion and astrophysics - and deal with certain views within a meta and macro perspective at the same time - a universal thought so to say.

You worked for a second time with producer Victor Bullok. What did Victor bring to the music? 

Victor Bullok is one of my closest friends even before I was playing music. He produced every album and demo Obscura ever did and was part of the production of "Retribution" as well. We know exactly how to work together, push each other to get better results and more importantly both of us work hard to develop our knowledge as engineers and producers. "Illegimitation" in 2003 was his first production. In the meantime he worked with Triptykon, Celtic Frost, Pestilence, Dark Fortress and an endless list of recording artists. Together we shaped the sound of the band into what you hear now on "Akroasis." I would consider him as the fifth band member, since he is part of Obscura from the very beginning. Victor understands the music and concepts and brought in ideas for arrangements, sounds and finding our own sound.

"Septuagint" opens the album with acoustic guitars. Nylon and steel? Did you ever think, "What will Obscura fans think if we use acoustic guitars?"

Only steel. I never thought about that to be honest. We write the music we love and if our fans love what we do even better. I don't write music to develop a product that hopefully sells more than the previous one. This is exactly what we want to play, hear and perform. If you are honest to yourself, people realize that and respect this more than any plastic product for the mass that is shaped to sell.

Florian Magnus Maier [Morean] plays the guitar solo on "Velocity." Were you there when Florian played the solo? 
 
No, Florian wrote this lead in his studio in Rotterdam, the Netherlands while we had been recording at Woodshed Studio, Germany.

It is a beautiful solo. Do you have any input or ideas when outside guitar players come in to play solos on Obscura albums? 

It is a well composed lead that brought a new dimension to "Velocity" that is true. And for me it stands as a highlight of the record. Usually, I don't give any advice to our lead guitarists or guest musicians since they should have freedom in what they record and later perform live. It feels more valuable for the music if the musicians have the chance to work out something of their own in a certain style and vibe. For "Velocity," neither Christian or me came up with ideas we had been satisfied with and since the middle section of the song is an homage to Mahavishnu Orchestra with a pretty open structure, I asked Florian to go beyond any border and come up with a lead that was not necessary to be reproduced live. The song itself is based on six guitars and was not meant to be performed live at all.

Morean has been an important part of the development of Obscura, right? He wrote songs on the first album and has been involved with the band for some time. 

We all live or lived in the same city in Southern Germany, Landshut, and knew each other for more than 15 years. Within this small scene, we helped each band and worked here and there together. Noneuclid recorded both of their albums basically in our rehearsal room before Woodshed Studios was built as we know it these days. Morean wrote a few lyrics for our debut album but never composed a song for the band. He is a close friend since the beginning and it is a pleasure when we meet every few times to discuss lyrics, grand concepts or simply have a good time at a show.

When you work with different musicians - Morean, Tommy Talamanca, Ron Jarzombek, et al - do their approaches bring new ideas to you? 

Not so far or at least nothing I could recognize.

In terms of perhaps recording guitars or structure or arrangement? 

I didn't write music with any of those musicians so I wouldn't say so.

In 2012, you did a crowdfunding project for "Illegitimation," which brought together various demos, "Cosmogenesis" outtakes and cover songs. Why did you want to do that? 

The first demo, "Illegimitation" was released in a very limited edition of perhaps 20 or 25 pieces and we realized that there was some interest in those old recordings when a few people sold those demos on Ebay for around $80 USD. The songs haven't been available in digital form anywhere and the bigger Obscura became, the more I got messages about how to get those old recordings. We could have released this compilation through Relapse Records, but to be honest, releasing compilations these days' smells like the band tries to make some money with old material.
"It feels like there are more and more promising new bands coming up these days"

Bands do that a lot. 

I didn't want to see this old material in a store or distribution. In the end, we asked through this campaign if our fans wanted to have those recordings and offered a CD with a 20-page booklet, a gatefold vinyl with special colors and multiple shirts. To give something valuable besides the four tracks of our demo, we recorded three cover versions of bands that basically have been the reason why we play this kind of music - Death, Atheist and Cynic. To spice it up we added a few songs of the preproduction of "Cosmogenesis": "Incarnated," "Headworm" and "Open the Gates."

Did the crowdfunding project work for you? 

We gained a lot of attention and this campaign was successful although it didn't cover the costs of pressing vinyl, recording at Woodshed Studios and shipping all the merchandise. The CD and vinyl looks and sounds great, so our fans who have been interested in the early material got a valuable release directly from the band and that is exactly what I had in mind.

As you were putting "Illegimitation" together, what memories came back about recording those early songs? 

Good memories and getting in touch with the old members once again. We had been teenagers but tried to record the best we could and those songs represent clearly an inexperienced young band. But this is nothing to hide or neglect. Every release represents the band at a certain status, a snapshot of time so to say and I am proud over everything we achieved during the years. "Illegimitation" is where we started - the demo that leads us to "Akroasis" in 2016.

On December 15, 2012, you played a special show with early members of the band. How did that feel? 

That evening felt special but also the rehearsals before had been a pleasure for everyone involved. We even recorded the whole evening on pro audio equipment. We invited close friends for this evening - Dark Fortress with V. Santura and Morean, Hokum with Jonas Fischer, a former Obscura bassist - and brought "Illegimitation" back onstage. A great evening with 400 people having a big party and good time in our city.

"Akroasis" features an entirely new lineup. How has that impacted the sound of this new album? 

The rhythm section changed completely and brought a different view to work with grooves and drum arrangements. This is the biggest change from my perspective. Sebastian Lanser works with multilayered odd times and quin- or sept-tuplets to bring a new level of complexity into the band. Linus Klausenitzer combines our guitar work with the drumming more like a third guitarist instead of a rhythm-based bassist. His tone and taste for melodies feels very unique. Also Linus contributed great songs to "Akroasis" like "The Monist" or "Perpetual Infinity" - my personal favorite of the record. The direction is very clear where we are going with the band, but every musician involved had his share of sound and arranging the album. We kept the trademarks and our very own sound while adding new elements and a broader diversity to keep the music interesting and fresh.

Has it been difficult adjusting to new lineups? Working with new guitar players? 

It basically costs time to work with new musicians. It takes months to include a new musician since everyone works a bit different and has another workflow or musical background. With Sebastian, Linus and Rafael we have good vibes in the group and I hope we stay as this group for a long time.

When you bring in a new guitar player, what qualities are you looking for? 

There are hundreds of talented guitarists out there, but to cover a song you just need a certain amount of technique. For me, a musician becomes a musician with his own fingerprint, his own ideas and at best his own identity. Also speaking the same language is important. Keep in mind that recording an album takes a few months, but playing a touring cycle for the record takes up to three years. In that time you should understand each other well and also should get along well.

The intro to "Weltseele" is amazing. Beautiful acoustic guitars with fretless bass. Would you ever do a side project or solo album where the music has this more acoustic approach with cleaner guitars?

There is nothing less necessary than solo records. I don't need my name written on a CD cover. The same goes for projects - who needs a release that is recorded and no one cares about after a few weeks? With Obscura and Thulcandra, I have two bands for 14 and 13 years respectively to release albums with. These are serious groups collaborating with proper record labels and tours. The mentioned acoustic guitars and the fretless bass have been part of the songwriting to get a more dynamic range, a different audible adventure if you want to call it like that. Also a few acoustic-only pieces you'll find in Thulcandra and Obscura.

At 15:15, "Weltseele" may be the longest track you've ever recorded. Were you trying to push the boundaries of Obscura's music with a longer track? Various sections/movements? 

We hadn't written a 15-minute song on purpose. This song has a long history and went through different states since its first version from 2013. "Weltseele" is based on a five-minute long song Linus wrote around 2013, which we arranged together. When Tom Geldschläger joined the band in late 2014, he brought many good ideas into the composition. He divided the piece into two main parts and added a long acoustic intro and middle section which turned out to fit "Weltseele" perfectly. I brought up the idea to add a string ensemble as previously done in the early days of the band. Since none of us wanted to work with plastic sounds or plugins, we hired Matthias Preisinger, a professional Berlin-based arranger to write the string ensemble based on the primary ideas of the main theme. "Weltseele" turned into a special song and shows ideas we are working with on the next record. 

The string ensemble section in "Weltseele" is wonderful. If someone happened to put on this section of the song, they'd have no idea that Obscura was actually a brutal and progressive death metal band. Is that the idea?

I would recommend to listen to the whole song instead of moving to the string ensemble only. 

If you look at your writing and playing on "Akroasis" and compare it to what you did on the first "Rebribution" album, how would you measure it? 

"Retribution" was recorded 12 years ago when we all had been beginners on our instruments. There is no way to compare the records. We developed as a band, and I evolved as songwriter, instrumentalist and performer during that decade and became a professional engineer for audio and video design with a live experience of 500+ shows. It is a linear evolution where "Retribution" stands for the time of 2004 and "Akroasis" for 2016.

Were there challenging moments on "Akroasis"? 

The leads on "Ten Sepiroth" took a while and mixing the album took some time, but after all I won't say it was challenging from a musical side. 

Any feelings/thoughts on the current state of progressive death metal? 

Actually it feels like there are more and more promising new bands coming up these days. It is a worldwide movement and since it was never easier to record your own album, hundreds of demos are popping up every year. Good times for progressive death metal but metal in general.

As someone whose obviously given a lot of thought to the condition of the human animal, any feelings or thoughts about the world in 2016? 

It feels like everyone lives more and more in his own bubble and social media such as Facebook or YouTube suggests this is the only relevant reality to a grand part of society. Well, real life happens outside of forums, chats or the World Wide Web. I see a shift in our society overall and since we are more and more contingent upon media and electronic techniques, the next years will show us the way.

Any new projects/tours in the future? 

We are on a European tour with Thulcandra right now and head to a EU tour supporting Death DTA with Obscura in March and April before we start our festival tour during Summer. We are working hard on Australian, Indian, South American and Asian dates right now. More coming soon. Right now I am working on a new band and not a project so keep an eye on the usual sources to get news.

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/new...out_akroasis_and_his_vision_for_the_band.html


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## Rosal76 (Mar 21, 2016)

chopeth said:


> Were there challenging moments on "Akroasis"?
> 
> The leads on "Ten Sepiroth" took a while and mixing the album took some time, but after all I won't say it was challenging from a musical side.



Hmmm. Definitely gonna have to flip through the guitar tab book and examine the leads on that song.


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## Chewy5150 (Mar 22, 2016)

I just got my tab books in the mail today. Just from flipping through them briefly there is definitely some cool riffs/ideas/techniques I'll enjoy picking up through these songs.


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## Thorerges (Mar 22, 2016)

chopeth said:


> https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/new...out_akroasis_and_his_vision_for_the_band.html



It's a great interview, read the entire thing twice to make sure I didn't miss everything. I have to applaud Steffen for his professionalism here - to be honest I hate seeing band members trash one another (Hannes did a recent high profile interview were he basically called out Steffen for a number of things including his A)Playing B)Songwriting ability and C) Professionalism for taking credit). I think all hardcore Obscura fans know that Hannes wrote most of the material on the first 2 records, and partially explains the enormous shift to this modern Obscura, were the rhythms are more straightforward and compact, relative to Omnivium. 

Also great to see that Morean and Jarzombek are getting some kudos from this interviewer. Velocity is one of my favorite solos of all time, although the last 10 seconds are virtually impossible to play - it still shows just how virtuosic and creative Morean really is. 

I like how Steffen noted The Monist and Perpetual Infinity as being his favorite tracks - those were the tracks I enjoyed the least on this record. 

Anyways, I will stop complaining about the album - I think the reception has been unbelievable, even if it doesn't appeal to me personally. Sales are better than ever and the marketing has been superb. It is not as technical or progressive as previous records, but its very dynamic and to the point - which is what the wider metal audience is enjoying, I believe. Happy for Obscura.


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## Rosal76 (Mar 26, 2016)

For the bass players who may be interested, Obscura bassist, Linus Klausenitzer will be releasing a bass guitar tab book for Akroasis. 

https://www.realmofobscura.com/product/pre-order-akroasis-bass-tablature-book/


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## anomynous (Apr 5, 2016)




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## CreptorStatus (Apr 6, 2016)

anomynous said:


>




The setlist for anyone interested:

1. Ten Sepiroth
2. The Monist
3. Akroasis
4. The Anticosmic Overload
5. Sermon of the Seven Suns
6. Ode to the Sun
7. Centric Flow

Pretty heavy on the Akroasis stuff which is not surprising. Someone commented that their new lead guitarist wasn't playing all of Fountainhead's leads. The video is not the best quality so it would be pretty hard to confirm that though.


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## Thorerges (Apr 7, 2016)

I wouldn't be surprised (although would still have to hear the clip). A) Fountainhead is a beast and B) They were written on a fretless guitar, so the intonation would be different and C) Since Trujilo is the new guitarist, it makes sense that he plays them in a way thats most comforting. Hard to imagine what it's like being 21 and so incredibly gifted. Haven't seen anything like it in death metal since Muenzner played for Necrophagist. 

I do like the fact Obscura has been attentive to social media, however.


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## Chewy5150 (Jun 21, 2016)

Didn't notice this posted anywhere else... Ten Sepiroth video!

Obscura: &#39;Ten Sepiroth&#39; Video Released - Blabbermouth.net


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## takotakumi (Jun 21, 2016)

Also,Tom commented on FB that he will post a playthrough of the Akroasis and Sermon solo's sometime soon. He will offer the tabs as well for 1 Eur 

UPDATE: relapse started bitching about him making profit of that...thus he is giving it away for free now.

https://db.tt/1cdLCnnt


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## Necropitated (Jun 21, 2016)

I did a solo cover of Ten Sepiroth, next to Akroasis, the most interesting solo on the record that's playable without a fretless guitar haha.


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## takotakumi (Jun 21, 2016)

Necropitated said:


> I did a solo cover of Ten Sepiroth, next to Akroasis, the most interesting solo on the record that's playable without a fretless guitar haha.




Saw it when Tom shared it the other day 

You rip dude! All your obscura solo covers are spot on


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## Rosal76 (Jun 21, 2016)

takotakumi said:


> UPDATE: relapse started bitching about him making profit of that...thus he is giving it away for free now.



Sweet!!! Took a look at the tab and my interest in that solo has been renewed like 100 times over. 



takotakumi said:


> Also,Tom commented on FB that he will post a playthrough of the Akroasis and Sermon solo's sometime soon.



Saw it, loved it and will probably watch it 20 more times. Beyond Creation bassist, Hugo Doyon Karout commented on the video. Very cool.


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## OmegaSlayer (Jun 21, 2016)

Necropitated said:


> I did a solo cover of Ten Sepiroth, next to Akroasis, the most interesting solo on the record that's playable without a fretless guitar haha.




Cool! You're Kevin then.
Always great playthroughs man!

Also...Tom is DA BOSS!


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## Fountainhead (Jun 24, 2016)

here´s a new link for my "Akroasis" solo playthrough video since Steffen had it taken down from FB, along with all my other Obscura videos
:
https://mega.nz/#!kdBHXSSb
use this key to download the file:
!TwtFzxDBCEKcd1oDq-agdHPziysO-kEBaMET0Mn-fmU
here´s the new link for the full transcription:
https://mega.nz/#!hcJAwDyB
and the key to go along with that:
!wmDgPsLDG0f_ay9btJocH3GtAUmaux8D01SIiCOpEhY

Enjoy.


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## OmegaSlayer (Jun 24, 2016)

Holy crap!
How can you be able to make other people's vids to be taken down from Facebook?


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## chopeth (Jun 25, 2016)

freaking genious


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## anomynous (Jul 5, 2016)

https://www.facebook.com/RealmOfObscura/posts/10154319815183545


Drama


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## Thorerges (Jul 6, 2016)

anomynous said:


> https://www.facebook.com/RealmOfObscura/posts/10154319815183545
> 
> 
> Drama



Damn dude, should've taken a screen shot of that ....!!


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## Thorerges (Jul 6, 2016)

Oh I saw the post Obscura released. What was this in response to? Also, Tom left a band - why is this still an issue?


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## chopeth (Jul 6, 2016)

~Concerning rumors about former guitarist Tom Geldschläger~
To clear up rumors each member of the band faces these days, Obscura would like to speak out some facts about the departure of former guitarist Tom Geldschläger.
During the production of &#8220;Akroasis&#8221; the band decided not to work with Tom Geldschläger (&#8220;Fountainhead&#8221 anymore due to professional, musical and personal reasons.
Those reasons led to a delay of the recording process and an immense gain of production costs.
When Steffen Kummerer released Tom Geldschläger from his duties on the phone (with the band and producer present), it was agreed that Tom Geldschläger gets correct credits for his contributions. Every band member was involved in the songwriting of almost every track &#8211; the main composers of each track are mentioned in the booklet of the album. He is correctly mentioned for co-arranging with the rest of the band and for writing a grand portion of the song &#8220;Weltseele&#8221;. Before the official press release of a first teaser representing &#8220;Akroasis&#8221;, Tom Geldschläger was contacted to get notice that the new lineup will be announced alongside the first press release of a new album.
Obscura stick to the given word and pay royalities and mechanicals as agreed through a publishing deal, signed by all parties. Tom Geldschläger got paid in full writing his contributions for an official guitar tablature book while his parts got never delivered. In addition, Tom Geldschläger tried to publish notations of the music through several portals only Relapse Records and Obscura as licenser have, as part of the signed contract, a right to distribute. Tom Geldschläger caused all blocked content himself by violations against contracts that he agreed to (for example using parts of original STEMS of different albums in video format).
After Tom Geldschläger's 8 month in the band he already mentioned to plan a reputational damage against the band. In our perspective he is manipulating people with wrong facts in a very unprofessional, personal and emotional way. We are very happy that a lot of fans were sending messages to hear the other side of the story as we originally decided not to speak about this topic in public anymore. His recent defamations are the reasons why we feel forced to publish these facts.
We are very thankful for his musical contribution to &#8220;Akroasis&#8221; and we hope he will stop taking an inappropriate and undignified role of a victim so he can raise attention again with what we all love most: music.
Sincerely,
Steffen Kummerer & Linus Klausenitzer


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## ArtHam (Jul 6, 2016)

As much as it pains me to realise this and I don't want to condone Kummerer's actions here it seems a legitimate reaction to Geldschlager's actions. He has consistently kept bringing the whole issue up all over the internet. 
It's honestly like every other post is about him being let go from Obscura. At first I was on his side, but after reading and hearing about literally a thousand times from only his side it just feels so unprofessional. Almost like went through a breakup with his girlfriend and now needs to 'educate the world on how evil she is'. 
Seriously. 
Every damn time. 'not to look unprofessional, but'.  And then try to pass it off as if he doesn't really care. Which he obviously does.

As ....ty as the situation must've been, but being professional means not bringing up all the time. Not saying Obscura are right in this and I think the collaboration between the parties didn't work since I don't like Akroasis at all. It's just silly. And now, almost a full year later, this is still being brought up as if it were a big deal. Way to keep hanging on to the negativity. 

Sad to see Obscura stooping to that level now too, but I kind of get it.

Once again: not saying either party is right. To me both are completely wrong and unprofessional. This kind of childish finger pointing and 'he started it - no he started it' bull.... is has no place in the world of grown-ups. Back to kindergarten, kids.


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## ArtHam (Jul 6, 2016)

Thorerges said:


> Oh I saw the post Obscura released. What was this in response to? Also, Tom left a band - why is this still an issue?



I think it's because Geldschläger has shared material he doesn't own the copyright to with fans and has called on them to share it all over the internet.
It seems he got paid for notations of his solos and riffs but never delivered them. Then he released them on his site for free.
And then again because Tom seems to bring it up at least once a week himself.


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## Fountainhead (Jul 6, 2016)

Hey guys,

the actual reason Obscura posted that is the fact that Steffen Kummerer has been harassing me on facebook for weeks and had my facebook account closed by reporting copyright infringement on any post I did, censoring anybody speaking up against it on the Obscura page in the process. Apparently he got scared that the public would get word on it (which it will) so he tried to act first by issuing that statement on their page. After one year of people asking for it, I posted one (1!!!) video of myself playing a part I have written & performed and (according to band, read the post!) I´m now all of a sudden rightfully credited for - which in reality means that I am one of the rightsholders and get a share of the publishing. Same rules apply to everybody who worked on Akroasis in that regard, but somehow there´s bass and drum playthroughs and music videos using the same stems , but I´m not allowed to do anything. Also, I´m apparently the only one on the internet who´s not allowed to transcribe and upload Obscura stuff (just check ultimate guitar), simply BECAUSE I am the one who played that stuff on the album in the first place. Doesn´t that struck you as odd and contradictory? It´s because they´re afraid that it will make people realize that what´s in the tabbook isn´t correct. Which it did - you know what happened to people who were asking about the tabbook´s quality? they got blocked and their posts got deleted - that´s censorship. And then Kummerer goes on a killing spree having me banned from facebook even though I didn´t even post anything Obscura related since the last attack and all of the files and posts (other people´s posts too, he´s not stopping with me) have been deleted - yet he continues attacks me and takes down my facebook - INCLUDING my artist page and suddenly posts this lengthy rand not even mentioning what´s happening and WHY there´s "rumours" about the band - now who´s the agressor here and who´s playing the victim? 
Btw: their post is filled to the brim with half-truths and "weaseling-out" of issues that they´ve created themself.
A band that´s been around for almost 20 years and signed to one of the major metal labels is actually making a post like that without backing up ANYTHING they say in it? And the post isn´t even mentioning the facebook-takedown in a sad attempt to influence public opinion before this issue gets to the press. 

Now, whoever is speaking out here on behalf of Obscura might wanna actually get their facts straight, go to my facebook page and check how much "obscura-bashing" there actually is before you jump to such a conclusion. I´m quite shocked that I even need to defend myself here after a guy in an ESTABLISHED band has the audacity to give 150+ interviews slamming somebody who just helped him make an album for no reason other than spite and false sense of entitlement. Rockhard magazine, him claiming he and their new guitar player wrote "Weltseele" - that´s fraud. Londonmetalmonthly, him claiming he re-recorded 80% of my tracks, claiming I had mental issues and couldn´t even tune my guitar - that´s him trying to ruining somebody´s career, who´s just helped giving him an album to promote and to tour and to make money off. Metalwani.com, him sending out a press-release that´s suggesting somebody else played on the album he just sent in for review - that´s manipuling public opinion. And that´s just the tip of the iceboerg. I´m sorry if you feel offended by the fact that a band you like has issues, but are you really blaming me for defending myself after UNPROVOKED attacks by somebody who has a 10x bigger audience and would actually have zero reason to even lash out in the first place? Especially in 2016 where "Akroasis" is one of 3 (!) albums I´m releasing or co-releasing in the span of 6 months - where were you when I was promoting all that other stuff? Remember that one(!!!!!) interview I gave on the issue, speaking out my side of the story? That´s only because londonmetalmonthly ASKED me to do it, as a reaction to Steffen´s own interview which attacked me in at every step of the way. There´s proof for all of this (screenshots, scans, all the interviews being freely available...), while he goes around claiming stuff without ever showing proof for it. And I´m supposed to defend myself while my lifelyhood is at stake just because somebody is annoyed at this being out in the open - maybe imagine just for a second how annoyed YOU would be if you spend a year of your life working on somethinh, then somebody else is trying to take the credit, is out to hurt your career for no apparent reason other than spite, somebody who thinks he can just get away with it because he´s got the bigger audience. 
And yes I do care. You think not caring about your work and your lifelyhood is cool? alright, give me the password to your facebook account and your band´s account, I´ll have it all taken down just because you don´t agree with me. See me point?


There´s gonna be in indepth reaction to Obscura´s post later on where I´ll go into the details of the post. but just so you know: claiming that I got paid for the notation of the solos and am now trying to make profit of it is complete and utter bull.....


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## ArtHam (Jul 6, 2016)

Claiming that you've been professional about the whole issue is stretching the truth a lot. This thread and forum alone is filled with 'they did this, they did that'. None of which I ever saw them do until you started slinging mud. I understood it though. I'd be severely hurt if my band would pull something like that. I understand you defend yourself, but with that same reasoning I understand they will defend themselves. It's the internet. You'll never get 'justice'.

What we have here is simple: one party says this, the other says that. Both call each other liars. No way for ANYONE to know where the truth is. I suspect it's, as almost always, a little of both.

I'm also not speaking on behalf of the band, nor did I, I think a was very clear there. I think what they did here sucks just as much. Kummerer comes off as a very unpleasant person, but you're not looking a lot better. Both of you have personal and professional issues with each other, but as a mere spectator I can only conclude: this whole affair is just one big unprofessional cluster.... and all of you are behaving like children. None of you are choosing the high road and you're just keeping all the negativity alive. The both of you are making that Cynic thing from last year look like peanuts. Guess what, this kind of thing happens with almost every other band out there. But only a very small percentage turns it into a pissing contest. You and Obscura are doing just that. And both parties look like gigantic idiots.

In the end nobody wins. You're never going to win this argument with them, they are never going to win this argument with you. All your careers will suffer because this .... will stay on the internet forever and will forever be brought up in connection with this. Their fans will side with them, your fans will side with you. Nobody wins. Everybody will draw their own conclusions. My conclusion would be: Obscura sucks for doing this to you, but there has to be a reason they fired you. It's certainly not your playing or compositional skills. As much as Hannes and Christian hate Steffen they left the band yet you were fired. That still means Obscura/Kummerer are douchebags for doing that, but there's no way in hell you got fired because they thought you too good a guitar player or were a nice guy. Before Obscura nobody knew who you were but now you're on one of their albums and have had some exposure. Run with it. Do your thing.

Once again: not saying Obscura are right. Because they suck for firing you over the phone. It has given everything a bad taste. I couldn't get into akroasis at all but now I'll probably never listen to it again. It's bad that happened to you. But, really. I'm a software engineer. Do you have any idea how that business is run? That stuff happens to people everywhere on a daily basis. I've had that happen to me. Working on a project for 3+ years and then getting shuffled off/promoted to another project and somebody else taking over where I left off for a few months to a finished project and getting equal credit. It happens in lots and lots of bands, too. Isn't there some point where you go '.... it' get on with life. Didn't this whole thing start up again when you started spreading those tabs for free? It's not like you didn't know how they felt about it.

And I don't think anybody claimed you were making profit from the tabs, but that you got paid up front, didn't deliver and were now giving them away for free and accepting donations. The giving away part and accepting donations is true. I don't know if you got paid, but you are giving them away for free. While that is fine you must've known there'd be a reaction. And to be honest: the tab book for omnivium was so full of mistakes I never even bothered getting the akroasis book. And I'm glad I didn't.

For me Obscura is a lost cause, but I hoped you were over this petty nonsense. That being said while I didn't like most of the things you did on akroasis I really liked the solo you did on the new Hannes Grossmann song.


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## chopeth (Jul 6, 2016)

Fountainhead said:


> It´s because they´re afraid that it will make people realize that what´s in the tabbook isn´t correct.



ah, I can't fcking believe it, not again. Are all the solos wrong? I shouldn't have bought it


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## ArtHam (Jul 6, 2016)

chopeth said:


> ah, I can't fcking believe it, not again. Are all the solos wrong? I shouldn't have bought it



I feel your pain. I had that when I got the Omnivium book and the first thing I saw was a mistake. And then another. That book was a disaster. I don't believe for a second the new one is better.


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## Lorcan Ward (Jul 6, 2016)

All this drama has really put me off the band. I haven't even checked out the new album yet.


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## takotakumi (Jul 6, 2016)

...in other news

My friend Eetu just released this video covering the solo from "Imaginative Soul", which was a song that was supposed to be on the new Obscura album but will instead be on the new Alkaloid one.

Guy even added the tab

Yes, this is the crazy guy that covered the Cthulhu solo, Fountainhead's solo from the new Hannes songs...Eetu ripss

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VB4bWO_F5mQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

https://youtu.be/VB4bWO_F5mQ


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## chopeth (Jul 7, 2016)

ArtHam said:


> I feel your pain. I had that when I got the Omnivium book and the first thing I saw was a mistake. And then another. That book was a disaster. I don't believe for a second the new one is better.



But they fixed it, they even sent a free (less quality) omnivium book for those like us who bought the flawed one. I thought Steffen had learned from that and would never do that again


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## ArtHam (Jul 7, 2016)

chopeth said:


> But they fixed it, they even sent a free (less quality) omnivium book for those like us who bought the flawed one. I thought Steffen had learned from that and would never do that again



I don't think he did. The last word is that Tom didn't send them the correct tabs so they just tried to notate themselves. Don't know why but probably because everybody was pushing for tab books. So now he's releasing them for free himself. Don't know what's up with that since Tom is only mentioning all the things they did to him, but logic dictates he got fired for a reason. If there's any truth to him not delivering his tabs he's not entirely innocent in this.

I hope it's something spectacular like Richie Kotzen/Poison where Richie got fired for having sex with the bass player's wife or something similar.

If I'm honest both parties can just go .... themselves. 
I can't believe how I went from being a super fan of this band to now being sick of them and their drama.


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## sezna (Jul 7, 2016)

ArtHam said:


> I can't believe how I went from being a super fan of this band to now being sick of them and their drama.



Am I still allowed to like their music?


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## ArtHam (Jul 7, 2016)

Fountainhead said:


> Hey guys,
> Also, I´m apparently the only one on the internet who´s not allowed to transcribe and upload Obscura stuff (just check ultimate guitar), simply BECAUSE I am the one who played that stuff on the album in the first place. Doesn´t that struck you as odd and contradictory?



What it strikes me as is: you didn't want to be involved in the tab book but now want to upload your transcriptions to the internet for free to show everyone that the book you didn't want to be involved with is incorrect.

Very professional. 

I don't know how it works for you, but in my line of work (software programming) companies have very strict rules about that kind of stuff that are strictly enforced. I imagine the music business has similar rules. Looks like that's what happened to you.

I don't know. I feel bad for the way you got fired. And I think you're a great musician and you work with other great musicians. And I hope you'll get some closure.


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## MFB (Jul 7, 2016)

ArtHam said:


> I can't believe how I went from being a super fan of this band to now being sick of them and their drama.



While I was never a superfan, I'm certainly in the same boat. I considered them one of the top technical-DM bands when Cosmogenesis came out, and Omnivium is great - I just keep forgetting it exists because I've been fairly out of the metal loop. 

But now I see this after all the talk of a new album, and it makes me want no association with it.


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## MrPepperoniNipples (Jul 7, 2016)

I don't give two ....s about Fountainhead and Steffen's nonsensical drama. Regardless of who is right or wrong, I am tired of hearing about it. I understand Fountainhead's frustration, and I think it is in the right, but he wasn't kicked out of the band for no reason.

The thing that really irks me about this is that it not only damages Steffen's reputation, but Obscura's as well. That includes 3 amazing musicians that play alongside Steffen. Sebastian, Linus, and (probably more so than anyone else) Rafael have been put in a lame situation.

More than anything else, I cannot stand people taking out their personal frustrations with Steffen on Rafael. I think the constant bickering between both parties just makes this worse.

I would love more than anything for Tom to call out the fans of his about their negativity in regards to him. Rafael is a great player who is getting a lot of shhit because of some (in my opinion) dumb, mindless facebook keyboard warriors. Personally, I enjoy Rafael's approach to the solos much more than Tom's, but it looks like I am alone in that.


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## Double A (Jul 7, 2016)

Honestly, both parties need to understand that the fans just don't care about this type of .... and they are only hurting themselves by doing this .... in public. Just move on.

Saying that, I love Akroasis to pieces and I am adult enough to remove all of the petty bull.... going on when I listen to music so none of this effects my enjoyment at all. Honestly when I listen to music the last thing I even think about is the people playing it, it is like reading a book, anything that takes me outside of my experience of reading makes me realize I am reading and I have to stop, so... I just ignore all of this .....


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## NaYoN (Jul 12, 2016)

Hey, since everyone is sick of all the drama, here's some more drama 

Tom contacted me with an official statement as a press release, and I think it's fair that his voice is heard. He's provided some more evidence as to why he thinks he is wronged and such. I mostly agree with ArtHam, but I think it's also excessive that Tom's profile is blocked. As such, here's the statement: (it's way too long to copy paste here)

Tom &#8220;Fountainhead&#8221; Geldschlager&#8217;s Statement On Obscura Dispute &#8211; Heavy Blog Is Heavy


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## anomynous (Jul 12, 2016)

Not going to lie, David Davidson with Obscura would be sick.


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## bloc (Jul 12, 2016)

anomynous said:


> Not going to lie, David Davidson with Obscura would be sick.



No way, Revocation kills Obscura any day of the week.

Plus, I don't want DD eventually getting involved in any drama. The man deserves to be at peace


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## anomynous (Jul 12, 2016)

I meant just for the tour last year, like was stated in the email in the article.


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## ArtHam (Jul 13, 2016)

NaYoN said:


> Hey, since everyone is sick of all the drama, here's some more drama
> 
> Tom contacted me with an official statement as a press release, and I think it's fair that his voice is heard. He's provided some more evidence as to why he thinks he is wronged and such. I mostly agree with ArtHam, but I think it's also excessive that Tom's profile is blocked. As such, here's the statement: (it's way too long to copy paste here)
> 
> Tom &#8220;Fountainhead&#8221; Geldschlager&#8217;s Statement On Obscura Dispute &#8211; Heavy Blog Is Heavy




I am a skeptic. And I know full well that both parties have their own agendas.
The things I get from this and the only things that matter for me are:

1) Tom didn't write out his solos so all solos in the Akroasis book are wrong. Glad I didn't get it. I can see why he didn't want to invest any time in transcribing it anymore and I understand Obscura wanted to deliver a book because it was in the preorder, but this still sucks. All I see is: they paid him money to transcribe his parts but never specified all details what he had to do for it, so he didn't do the solos. Doesn't sit right with me.

2) As somebody on the article mentioned Tom's student is to blame for this whole business being brought back to the public. Either Tom asked him on to do it or this kid is just plain stupid. He re-posted the Geldschlager video with an obvious challenge to the band, Obscura posted a statement and subsequently got Geldschlager blocked from his pages. Must be nice to have fans like that.
If Tom's asking fans to get involved in this drama I can see why the band would go straight to the root of the problem and have him banned, but it's still not cool they did it.

3) The statement, as candid as it is, never mentions why he got fired from the band. Though I wonder why it should be illegal to dismiss him. He was last to join and was in the band for, what, a few months? Since when does the 'new guy' get a hold on a band legally? If that were the case then the whole Arch Enemy dismissing that one guy who played on the album to get Jeff Loomis thing would've gone a lot different.
Disputes like this never start for no reason, so I'm becoming more and more curious as to what actually happened here. Seeing how bitter this thing is getting maybe he did sleep with one of the band members girlfriends/whatever?

4) that whole percentages bit bothers me. I wondered about this myself and talked to a musician friend of mine a few months ago and from what I remember (and I am not an authority on this) 50% for a song's credit is music, 50 % is lyrics. I think it also says so in the screenshots, but my german is very shaky. If my math is right then contributing one part and some arranging ideas to a song with about 20 parts then getting 6.67 % seems about right. It's stingy, but I don't think you can ask for a lot more considering you'll have to appease the other members who actually wrote the riffs.

5) Just playing on a song doesn't give you rights to more songwriting credits. If that would be the case now studio musicians like Steve Lukather would be the richest people on earth. So I don't get why it's important to list what he plays.

On a whole it seems like there are a hand full of die hard Geldschlager fans who are making way more of this then it actually is, badmouthing the guy who replaced him and make it seem like a huge deal and in turn making obscura take more and more drastic measures. I don't think I've seen things get so sour before. I wonder how much worse it gets.
Either way, both parties are in the wrong for making this matter public. But the damage is already done. I wonder if it wouldn't have been better for both parties if they'd just parted ways like actual professional people do: behind closed doors.

What everyone seems to forget is that this is the internet. Neither party will ever give in. If they want there to be 'justice' for either party they'll need to get legal action. In the end it's death metal though and that means the legal costs would outrun any profit for an album that, in this day and age, would maybe sell 10000 copies world wide. SO that's not happening either.


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## Necropitated (Jul 14, 2016)

Hey guys, not taking part in any discussions here, since I'm actually a small part of that story. Just here to share my cover of the solo section of Akroasis. Didn't transcribe this one myself this time, so credit goes to Tom for his transcription. I still changed some fingerings because I find some of his really uncomfortable.


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## sezna (Jul 14, 2016)

Necropitated said:


> Hey guys, not taking part in any discussions here, since I'm actually a small part of that story.


 Dang, some of us like drama...what a tease.


but on for real, that was some darn clean playing. nice job. how long did that take you to get down?


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## Necropitated (Jul 14, 2016)

sezna said:


> Dang, some of us like drama...what a tease.
> 
> 
> but on for real, that was some darn clean playing. nice job. how long did that take you to get down?



Well, there had to be a person who told Tom about Obscura looking for a new guitar player, while he was still in the band.

To the other question: That one took a while. I practiced it for 2 days before recording. With "took a while" I mean I did 400 takes in total including the practice takes....


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## anomynous (Jul 14, 2016)

Can't wait for Akroasis 2: Drama Boogaloo


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## Rosal76 (Dec 1, 2016)

Hey guys, new Obscura guitar playthrough for Ten Sepiroth. 



A little weird but I'd like to note that in the video, Rafael is playing the first solo/fill (0:22-0:32) but in the official guitar tablature book, Steffen is credited with the solo.


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## takotakumi (Dec 1, 2016)

Rosal76 said:


> New Obscura guitar playthrough for Ten Sepiroth.
> 
> 
> 
> A little weird but I'd like to note that in the video, Rafael is playing the first solo/fill (0:22-0:32) but in the official guitar tablature book, Steffen is credited with the solo.




Steffen credits himself with lots of Obscura stuff but nevertheless its always someone else like Fountainhead in this case, and Hannes and Muenzner for most of the grand Omnivium stuff.

There is absolute no way he came up with that, its Tom's style 300% all the way. This is another of the factors that resulted in that dispute between Tom and Steffen earlier this year...

As to why they changed the Guitar solo (0:22-0:32 is more a lead melody/riff even tough hard AF to play which could be considered a mini solo hehe) I would say that besides being extremely hard to play, that initial lead is what makes that particular song memorable and would definitively not be same without it, whereas the solo not so much I would say (even though I think its good), but the many repetitions of that lead throughout the song make it hard to forget...

sorry for the mini rant


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## Rosal76 (Dec 1, 2016)

takotakumi said:


> I would say that besides being extremely hard to play, that initial lead is what makes that particular song memorable and would definitively not be same without it,



It is awesome sounding. The next Obscura song I was gonna learn was Perpetual infinity but then the band made the first video for Ten Sep and I was like, "oh damn, might have to learn that first solo".


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## shredmatters (Apr 17, 2017)

Like that?


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## shredmatters (May 24, 2017)

pretty green.


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## shredmatters (May 25, 2017)




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## shredmatters (Jun 3, 2017)




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## drmosh (Jun 3, 2017)

takotakumi said:


> Steffen credits himself with lots of Obscura stuff but nevertheless its always someone else like Fountainhead in this case, and Hannes and Muenzner for most of the grand Omnivium stuff.
> 
> There is absolute no way he came up with that, its Tom's style 300% all the way. This is another of the factors that resulted in that dispute between Tom and Steffen earlier this year...
> 
> ...



You're 100% totally spot on


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## takotakumi (Sep 28, 2017)

They just teased something on their FB
Live on Fb Oct 1 

Then added the hashtags #thefinal #theend #theendiscoming

I guess the last album/conclusion to the 4 album series?hmmmmmm


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## Rosal76 (Sep 28, 2017)

takotakumi said:


> They just teased something on their FB
> Live on Fb Oct 1



Really excited about this. Can't wait to hear what they have in store.


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## Tech Wrath (Sep 28, 2017)

New material? Better not let me down /:


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## takotakumi (Sep 28, 2017)

Tech Wrath said:


> New material? Better not let me down /:


I'm expecting a solid 5/7 at best :v


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## ThePIGI King (Sep 28, 2017)

Rafael has big shoes to fill. It won't be easy following Muenzner and Fountainhead. I'm hoping his solos are tasty, but I've been spoiled by the previous leads in Obscura.

I also really liked Hannes' drumming more. Good thing Alkaloid has new material this year


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## Tech Wrath (Sep 28, 2017)

ThePIGI King said:


> I also really liked Hannes' drumming more. Good thing Alkaloid has new material this year


Oh my! Can't wait for Alkaloid. The Malkuth Grimoire was an insane release. I really love the combo between Hannes and Muenzner. Two of my favorite artists in this genre.


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## chopeth (Sep 29, 2017)

So soon? Last one's wait was 5 years... I guess just teasing, I hope they don't get in something wintersunian.


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## Chiba666 (Sep 29, 2017)

I know that is a Euro Tour in November as Linus mentioned it on a Thoman video about his gear.


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## takotakumi (Sep 29, 2017)

ThePIGI King said:


> Rafael has big shoes to fill. It won't be easy following Muenzner and Fountainhead. I'm hoping his solos are tasty, but I've been spoiled by the previous leads in Obscura.
> 
> I also really liked Hannes' drumming more. Good thing Alkaloid has new material this year


Pretty sure they can be tasty as he mostly does jazz/ fusion stuff but the shoes he has to fill....
He's a fantastic player. Loved how he learnt to properly play the akroasis solo like Tom does.



Tech Wrath said:


> Oh my! Can't wait for Alkaloid. The Malkuth Grimoire was an insane release. I really love the combo between Hannes and Muenzner. Two of my favorite artists in this genre.


Alkaloid II coming next year yeeeeeeeeehbbbbb000000000iiiii


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## takotakumi (Oct 3, 2017)

So basically new album summer 2018
They have entered the studio to record the new one as always with V. Santura 
Apparently they most of the album written and its supposed to be "their most heavy, musical, technical,etcetc"

This is kind of the opposite from the Omnivium-Akroasis shift which took 5 years whereas this is less than 2 years haha


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## shredmatters (Oct 4, 2017)

Nah, Cosmogenesis-Omnivium took only 2 years either.


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## takotakumi (Oct 4, 2017)

shredmatters said:


> Nah, Cosmogenesis-Omnivium took only 2 years either.


I feel dumb having forgotten that.
At the time they had composer master Hannes thoughh...that man is always writing material haha


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## shredmatters (Oct 5, 2017)

Hannes is a master drummer, true.


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## anomynous (Oct 5, 2017)

Never coming back to the US I see


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## takotakumi (Oct 9, 2017)

So they will be doing a live stream every sunday on fb answering questions and providing insights to the new album.


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## chopeth (Oct 9, 2017)

I'd prefer they don't make that live thing and got the album out asap


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## shredmatters (Dec 30, 2017)

I hope they bring back some old members on stage or doing something special.... Anyone going?


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## takotakumi (Jan 16, 2018)

They just annouced in FB that the new album called Diluvium will be released this Summer 2018 

I was talking to some friends and I feel dumb for not catching the names:
1) CosmogeneSIS
2)OmnivIUM
3)AkroaSIS
4)DilivIUM


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## Rosal76 (Jan 16, 2018)

takotakumi said:


> They just annouced in FB that the new album called Diluvium will be released this Summer 2018



It is exciting news. Man, I really hope they release a matching guitar tab book for the new album.


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## takotakumi (Jan 16, 2018)

Rosal76 said:


> It is exciting news. Man, I really hope they release a matching guitar tab book for the new album.


They probably will like they did with Akroasis, which came out at once IIRC
They probably will include solos this time, since there a no feuds haha


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## takotakumi (Jan 23, 2018)

WOW
Steffen just joined ESP apparently, he uploaded a video of him playing sermon of the seven suns with a white ESP E-II 7.

I feel kind of sad haha, his old RAN screamed Obscura and was iconic in a way.


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## sezna (Jan 23, 2018)

takotakumi said:


> WOW
> Steffen just joined ESP apparently, he uploaded a video of him playing sermon of the seven suns with a white ESP E-II 7.
> 
> I feel kind of sad haha, his old RAN screamed Obscura and was iconic in a way.


Did he actually announce an endorsement? Or is he just playing a different guitar one time lol


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## takotakumi (Jan 23, 2018)

sezna said:


> Did he actually announce an endorsement? Or is he just playing a different guitar one time lol


Official announcement, end of the RAN era I'd say


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## chopeth (Jan 24, 2018)

After so many years changed an iconic and badass guitar for a boring one... money money money moooooney!


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## MFB (Jan 24, 2018)

Y'all saying that like ESP won't build him whatever crazy god damn point machine he can come up with. You forget, this is _ESP _we're talking about, not Gibson or Fender.


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## takotakumi (Jan 24, 2018)

MFB said:


> Y'all saying that like ESP won't build him whatever crazy god damn point machine he can come up with. You forget, this is _ESP _we're talking about, not Gibson or Fender.


You're right, after all their custom shop do stuff like the shinigami

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1...0k1j0i24k1.0.KeJ8l3f5rIM#imgrc=CpHIoPh7Blo9EM:

The one thing is that I know their US/EU artists tend to stick to their common shapes and make slight alterations to them.
It's on the Japan artists that you can find more bizarre and unconventional shapes


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## Rosal76 (Jan 24, 2018)

takotakumi said:


> WOW
> Steffen just joined ESP apparently, he uploaded a video of him playing sermon of the seven suns with a white ESP E-II 7.



I noticed that Steffen was using a ESP guitar in his other band, Thulcandra so I'm assuming that the company rubbed off on him more. Also, it seems that Steffen got rid of his Ran guitars immediately.





I'm just joking!!! I don't know the story behind that picture. I'm sure it's just a fan who had the honor of playing Steffen's guitar backstage or something.


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## chopeth (Jan 25, 2018)

MFB said:


> Y'all saying that like ESP won't build him whatever crazy god damn point machine he can come up with. You forget, this is _ESP _we're talking about, not Gibson or Fender.



No, I don't forget anything. No matter what machine ESP designs, that face-melting RAN was an emblem of Obscura itself already, but the Polish brand can't compete with ESP in terms of dough!


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## Rosal76 (Mar 28, 2018)

Hey guys, I thought some of you may like this Youtube video of Rafael Trujillo playing the song, Akroasis on his new Kiesel guitar. This video is a month old but I just found out about it yesterday. Kinda wish Rafael would have played another song off of the Akroasis album because they already have a video for the song. Nonetheless, the new video is cool.


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## chopeth (Mar 28, 2018)

My, how the hell can he downpick the whole main riff? Insane


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## Rosal76 (Mar 28, 2018)

chopeth said:


> My, how the hell can he downpick the whole main riff? Insane



Crazy isn't it.

The part that now makes it easier for me (when I practice the song again, which I will) is the beginning part (0:02-0:10) where he holds the chords down and picks each note. I thought he was picking each note individually without holding the other strings down.


----------



## Lorcan Ward (Mar 29, 2018)

Dude is an incredible player to be able to step into a band and learn Christians and Fountainheads parts.

His big advantage is he has ideal guitar fingers, his pinkie doesn't curl up when playing, it stays on the fretboard when its not being used. Using very small and limited movements it makes it much easier on his fretting hand.


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## JouniK86 (Mar 29, 2018)

Lorcan Ward said:


> Dude is an incredible player to be able to step into a band and learn Christians and Fountainheads parts.
> 
> His big advantage is he has ideal guitar fingers, his pinkie doesn't curl up when playing, it stays on the fretboard when its not being used. Using very small and limited movements it makes it much easier on his fretting hand.



In a genre so filled with ridiculously talented guitar players, Rafael Trujillo still kind of manages to stand out. The insane cleanliness of his playing is even more amazing when considering that these solos are not even his compositions, but someone else's with a whole different background, ability and approach to guitar than his. I can't help but admire his devotion to guitar playing and rehearsing; that he can pull off those things with such an incredibly sterile fluidity is beyond me.


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## chopeth (Mar 30, 2018)

Huge musician, right, overtalented to fill the shoes he has to, at least on the technical side. We'll see about the compositive one. I wish Fountainhead had lasted longer, though I love all obscura albums and especially the ridiculous genius of Omnivium, which I consider their peak, I think the most interesting solos in Obscura are brought by Fountainhead in Akroasis.


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## takotakumi (Mar 30, 2018)

chopeth said:


> Huge musician, right, overtalented to fill the shoes he has to, at least on the technical side. We'll see about the compositive one. I wish Fountainhead had lasted longer, though I love all obscura albums and especially the ridiculous genius of Omnivium, which I consider their peak, I think the most interesting solos in Obscura are brought by Fountainhead in Akroasis.


Tom's solos were refreshing as hell-and to me-the highlight of that album.
I would almost agree with you if it wasn't cause I'm biased in that I've been listening to Chris's solos for a longer time and has been a driving force for me to get better at leads haha


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## Rollandbeast (Mar 30, 2018)

chopeth said:


> My, how the hell can he downpick the whole main riff? Insane


I can downpick that riff but can't alternate pick it lol , it's actually one of my fav riff to practice downpicking , really good for warming up


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## takotakumi (May 8, 2018)

New Obscura


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## mikah912 (May 8, 2018)

I know we're not supposed to play favorites, but I gotta say I dig this more than most of the new Alkaloid I've heard lately. Fantastic guitar work from....Rafael Trujillo, I believe it is?


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## takotakumi (May 8, 2018)

mikah912 said:


> I know we're not supposed to play favorites, but I gotta say I dig this more than most of the new Alkaloid I've heard lately. Fantastic guitar work from....Rafael Trujillo, I believe it is?


hooooooooow haha
Well the "styles" are completely different though, and from what I heard there might not be a "alter magnitudes" or fast techy song on this upcoming alkaloid album.

Yes, it's Rafael.


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## Rosal76 (May 8, 2018)

takotakumi said:


> New Obscura



Takotakumi, did you hear anything about them releasing a guitar tablature book for the new album?


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## takotakumi (May 8, 2018)

Rosal76 said:


> Takotakumi, did you hear anything about them releasing a guitar tablature book for the new album?


I have not...but they've done it for the past 3 albums, so they will most likely do it again.


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## Rosal76 (May 8, 2018)

takotakumi said:


> I have not...but they've done it for the past 3 albums, so they will most likely do it again.



I really hope so. I was kinda discouraged that I didn't see one on the Relapse site and I also checked their Realmofobscura site and didn't see anything there.


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## Tech Wrath (May 8, 2018)

mikah912 said:


> I know we're not supposed to play favorites, but I gotta say I dig this more than most of the new Alkaloid I've heard lately. Fantastic guitar work from....Rafael Trujillo, I believe it is?



This Obscura song is good but I find it to be stuff already heard previously and all over tech death. Obscura stay in the tech death realm and they've become very 1 dimensional. (Akroasis was actually kind of interesting with the turn they took with Fountainhead but that was shortly lived). I find Alkaloid to hold a lot more substance, still pushing boundaries, adding multiple flavors, mixing things up, making every song interesting and different, in contrast to the other bands stuck in the "tech death" sound. Tech death was originally supposed to push things technically, then it took a huge prog turn and realized technicality isn't everything and added a ton of prog elements. Now it has taken a halt and those previous 'prog' elements aren't so progressive anymore. A lot of these (tech death) bands haven't tried to create any new things. Alkaloid deliver something new and fresh that can really become something that can pioneer new ideas.


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## ArtHam (May 9, 2018)

mikah912 said:


> I know we're not supposed to play favorites, but I gotta say I dig this more than most of the new Alkaloid I've heard lately. Fantastic guitar work from....Rafael Trujillo, I believe it is?


I can see why. Alkaloid are now coming into their own sound and style. Some people think of them as a tech death band like Obscura because of the 2 "leftover' Obscura songs that were put in Malkuth Grimoire. 

Hannes has said in interviews before that they were going to be a different band than Obscura and has after stated on his Facebook account multiple times that there weren't going to be any of the Obscura songs on the new one even though they still have that Imaginative Soul one recorded. I also read he had wished in hindsight that he'd put those songs on his solo record as he didn't want Alkaloid to be associated with the Obscura sound because they have a certain sound formula and blueprint that he doesn't want in Alkaloid and they've deliberately and aggressively shied away from those elements this time. I feel so far they've succeeded spectacularly as they seem to shed the people who only like their Obscura sounding moments and gain lots of fans who like progressive music but not tech death. And they confuse a lot of people because there really are no acts who sound like them.

This Obscura song is more of the same that they've always done with the exception of the terrible transition into the heavy riff at 2:57. That has just got to be the worst shoehorn job I've heard in recent times to get to a different part. The rest of the song sounds sterile, unaggressive and uninspired. Almost as clinical as that last ne obliviscaris record which was, no joke, the biggest letdown of 2017 for me and the main reason for me to cancel my patreon subscription with them.


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## ArtHam (May 9, 2018)

Tech Wrath said:


> This Obscura song is good but I find it to be stuff already heard previously and all over tech death. Obscura stay in the tech death realm and they've become very 1 dimensional. (Akroasis was actually kind of interesting with the turn they took with Fountainhead but that was shortly lived). I find Alkaloid to hold a lot more substance, still pushing boundaries, adding multiple flavors, mixing things up, making every song interesting and different, in contrast to the other bands stuck in the "tech death" sound. Tech death was originally supposed to push things technically, then it took a huge prog turn and realized technicality isn't everything and added a ton of prog elements. Now it has taken a halt and those previous 'prog' elements aren't so progressive anymore. A lot of these (tech death) bands haven't tried to create any new things. Alkaloid deliver something new and fresh that can really become something that can pioneer new ideas.


100% agree. Tech death hasn't really progressed in the last 10 years to my ears at all. Even the last Inferi, as solid as it is, has added nothing new to the genre. It's solid, yes. But it's as progressive and as new as oatmeal.


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## ArtHam (May 9, 2018)

takotakumi said:


> hooooooooow haha
> Well the "styles" are completely different though, and from what I heard there might not be a "alter magnitudes" or fast techy song on this upcoming alkaloid album.



I remember reading on Hannes Facebook or his reaction on someone's question (don't remember exactly) that there's definitely no song like that on the new one. He was going to keep those kind of songs for his solo albums. Alkaloid deliberately wanted to distance themselves from that. Somewhere last year Christian said he didn't write any songs for this album and he seems to steer more and more to the power metal side with Eternity's End.


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## chopeth (May 9, 2018)

For diehard fans of tech death like me the Alkaloid attitude bring mixed feelings. I love Alkaloid but on the one hand this guys have the right to distance themselves from tech death and especially from the Obscura approach, but on the other hand such a bunch of overtalented guitar monsters not writing the hardest style in metal music seems like a waste of power. They probably could do Obscura style as in Omnivium times better than nowadays Obscura if they tried as they have already proved. A bit of a paradox.


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## mikah912 (May 9, 2018)

ArtHam said:


> I can see why. Alkaloid are now coming into their own sound and style. Some people think of them as a tech death band like Obscura because of the 2 "leftover' Obscura songs that were put in Malkuth Grimoire.
> 
> Hannes has said in interviews before that they were going to be a different band than Obscura and has after stated on his Facebook account multiple times that there weren't going to be any of the Obscura songs on the new one even though they still have that Imaginative Soul one recorded. I also read he had wished in hindsight that he'd put those songs on his solo record as he didn't want Alkaloid to be associated with the Obscura sound because they have a certain sound formula and blueprint that he doesn't want in Alkaloid and they've deliberately and aggressively shied away from those elements this time. I feel so far they've succeeded spectacularly as they seem to shed the people who only like their Obscura sounding moments and gain lots of fans who like progressive music but not tech death. And they confuse a lot of people because there really are no acts who sound like them.
> 
> This Obscura song is more of the same that they've always done with the exception of the terrible transition into the heavy riff at 2:57. That has just got to be the worst shoehorn job I've heard in recent times to get to a different part. The rest of the song sounds sterile, unaggressive and uninspired. Almost as clinical as that last ne obliviscaris record which was, no joke, the biggest letdown of 2017 for me and the main reason for me to cancel my patreon subscription with them.



I totally get that, and I definitely want the genre to continue to actually progress. Alkaloid are absolutely the more adventurous of the two, and I'm excited by that.

I'm simply saying that there was a visceral oomph to this song - as orthodox tech death as it may sound - that I was missing from the the first few Alkaloid singles. Conversely, they have a mastery of dynamics and versatility that Obscura seems to be moving away from.


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## ArtHam (May 9, 2018)

chopeth said:


> For diehard fans of tech death like me the Alkaloid attitude bring mixed feelings. I love Alkaloid but on the one hand this guys have the right to distance themselves from tech death and especially from the Obscura approach, but on the other hand such a bunch of overtalented guitar monsters not writing the hardest style in metal music seems like a waste of power. They probably could do Obscura style as in Omnivium times better than nowadays Obscura if they tried as they have already proved. A bit of a paradox.



I depends on what you define has hardest style I guess. I'm sure none of the Alkaloid guys would say their music is easy or less difficult to play than what they've done before. In fact all of them have been on record as saying that some of the music they do is the hardest they've done.
I'm fairly confident that covering an Obscura song like this new one is a lot easier than any of the songs Alkaloid released from the new album. If you've seen any Necrophagist or Obscura tab books you'll instantly know how to go about playing that stuff. It of course still requires skill, but you'll at least know where to start. With Azagthoth- where the hell do you even begin?

I'm honestly fanboying over this band too much probably but that's because I'm dead excited by the fact that this group of guys who have innovated the tech death style in a lot of ways are venturing into territory that is quite new. They could obviously easily knock out an album in the Obscura style and possible become the biggest tech death act. But they don't. They do something new. I can't think of any bands that sound like them. If they keep this up they actually could be like Opeth back in the day when everybody latched onto them around Blackwater Park. Before that a lot of people didn't like them because they were too odd. Too unique.

There are quite a few Alkaloid covers and the only one people seem to be able to grasp is the Obscura song Alter Magnitudes, because it's so straight forward. It's fast, but still sounds like a typical tech death song. Every other cover you see is either dead wrong or absolutely horrible, though there are some valiant efforts to be sure. Everybody and their mother seem to be able to cover Obscura songs because they are 'easier' to grasp in that everything they do is eight note and 16th note runs, triplet arpeggios, 4/4 or 6/8 time signatures. All rather run of the mill and rhythmically in guitar parts at least very bland and easy to grasp compared to the intro solo for Azagthoth, outro solo for Chaos Theory and Practice or the main solo for Cthulhu. Those are nigh uncoverable because they are so unique to the persons who played them.
To draw a parallel with Obscura: Alkaloid is going more towards strange stuff like Aevum and Velocity, both songs that Obscura can't pull off live -though the solo for Velocity wasn't really played for a big part of course- while Obscura are veering more and more towards more straightforward material like Anticosmic Overload and Incarnated. This new song and almost all of Akroasis pretty much underline that.

Neither is wrong of course, but personally I feel the new Obscura song is predictable and unexciting. Competently played but as exciting as mashed potatoes.

All IMHO of course.


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## ArtHam (May 9, 2018)

mikah912 said:


> I'm simply saying that there was a visceral oomph to this song - as orthodox tech death as it may sound - that I was missing from the the first few Alkaloid singles.



I'm the complete opposite of that. As Decreed by Laws Unwritten and Chaos Theory and Practice made me want to wreck the room while this new Obscura song sounds so unaggressive, undynamic and sterile to my ears. It gives me no oomph at all unlike the beautiful melody that they had in Sermon Of The Seven Suns at 3:27 or the insanely heavy riffs of the outro of Ocean Gateways or the the chorus part of Euclidian Elements and the list goes on and on. Hoping this will still be great, but am doubtful because of this as the lead single. The 4 Alkaloid singles had me on the edge of my seat while this one song just bored me to tears even after listening to it at least 10 times.
This is not a bad thing of course and there is no right and wrong. I seem to be among the people who are more and more disenchanted by what Obscura do and more and more riveted by what Alkaloid are doing. Mainly because Obscura are sticking to their guns and very 'standard' tech death (with all respect since they popularised this genre for a huge part) while Alkaloid are doing things I have honestly never ever heard anywhere else which is a huge deal for me this being 2018 and me having listened to metal for almost all my life.


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## ArtHam (May 9, 2018)

chopeth said:


> For diehard fans of tech death like me the Alkaloid attitude bring mixed feelings. I love Alkaloid but on the one hand this guys have the right to distance themselves from tech death and especially from the Obscura approach, but on the other hand such a bunch of overtalented guitar monsters not writing the hardest style in metal music seems like a waste of power. They probably could do Obscura style as in Omnivium times better than nowadays Obscura if they tried as they have already proved. A bit of a paradox.



There's also another factor I just thought of but I think is true. Hannes and Christian have already had to start again in the tech death style. They went from Necrophagist eventually to Obscura. Obscura never got to be as big as and will never be as big as Necrophagist. But then when they left Obscura they could've continued in the Obscura style but always be smaller than Obscura because the name just means more the the vast majority of fans. I admire and respect that they didn't.


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## AliceLG (May 9, 2018)

ArtHam said:


> Competently played but as exciting as mashed potatoes.



That's excellent news for people who fucking love mashed potatoes 

On the one hand, you're on point with the difference in approach between Obscura and Alkaloid. On the other hand, this was just the first single. Let's chill and wait.

--

Relájate, vamos a ver que sueltan.


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## BIG ND SWEATY (May 9, 2018)

I'll take Obscura over Alkaloid 10 times out of 10 but this new song was boring to listen to. I wish they'd go back to the Cosmogenesis sound/riffing style.


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## Ancestor (May 11, 2018)

I love that dude's RAN guitar. Good band to have survived 15 years considering how they seemed to keep moving to more challenging music.


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## Metropolis (Jun 13, 2018)




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## Lorcan Ward (Jun 13, 2018)

^Really good!


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## chopeth (Jun 14, 2018)

How is it? I have the rule of not listening to teasers, better than the previous, worst?


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## NoodleFace (Jun 14, 2018)

chopeth said:


> How is it? I have the rule of not listening to teasers, better than the previous, worst?



Pretty good. Not ultra technical but solid. Reminds me a lot of older obscura


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## Lorcan Ward (Jun 14, 2018)

I like this more than the last. Its more toned down, especially the solo.


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## chopeth (Jul 4, 2018)




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## oracles (Jul 4, 2018)

The tone for the newest stuff is absolute garbage. I know tech death isn't exactly renowned for having great guitar tones, but this new stuff is so thin and brittle, I can't stand it. As far as the material itself, it strikes me as being a watered down version of themselves. There's nothing particularly exciting about it, it just sounds like generic Obscura.


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## Dwellingers (Jul 5, 2018)

Agreed - not really excited at all.


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## Vyn (Jul 5, 2018)

I actually like the guitar tones. I think what's really letting it down is that bass tone - It's adding absolutely zero bottom end.


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## Chewy5150 (Jul 6, 2018)




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## mikah912 (Jul 13, 2018)

OK, forget what I said about "Diluvium" the song. This album is super UNdynamic. Same tempos, structures and progressions over just under an hour of music. Disappointing to be honest. Trujillo is definitely a monster player, but they're really missing the songwriting badassery of Hannes/Meunzer or Foutainhead.


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## Double A (Jul 13, 2018)

... To me this is easily their best. It just has so much going on. And coming from a guy that has a main influence being the album Cynic - Focus (I listened to my burned cd copy of this album so much as a kid that it eventually stopped working even though it never left my cd player)... this was exactly what I wanted to hear in a metal album. I am NOT trying to make comparisons or throw shade at Alkaloid because I really like that band too, but as their new album sounded unfocused and to some extent like throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks (AND I LIKE THE NEW ALBUM!) Diluvium is... a wow. I also think SSO has a lot of people that still have a bias against this band for whatever reasons and it bleeds over into the forums overall opinion of the band. The original split was badly done, and the split with Fountainhead was really badly done also... but I think the music has spoken for itself. Song structure is also not usually something I take points away for a band using. Because... well, I like songs and the songs on Diluvium are really, really well structured and sound like complete thoughts and not just random shit. One of my biggest pet peeves as a guitar player and a songwriter for the past 23 years is lazy, and bad songwriting. Specifically when bands I see live just use the pause to break into another part. Songs are supposed to have themes and movements, not just in the lyrics but in the music too. I may be old manning it here, but a lot of metal to me sounds like a bunch of random cool riffs thrown together.

This gets really high marks from me. Trujillo nailed it and the songs are fucking cool. But hey, I am a fan.


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## chopeth (Jul 15, 2018)

Though I'm a long time diehard fan, I must admit this is the one I like less so far, imo:

1. Omnivium
2. Akroasis
3. Cosmogenesis
4. Diluvium


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## ArtHam (Jul 16, 2018)

Like it, don’t love it. On a whole a step up from Akroasis I think.

1 Omnivium
2 Cosmogenesis
3 Diluvium
4 Akroasis


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## Glades (Jul 17, 2018)

I've been listening to this album a bit since it dropped. I really like it.


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## Razerjack (Jul 18, 2018)

Uber solid material from top to bottom, the vocoder('cynic' vocal) stuff seem to really work as well. However I agree with the 'undynamic' part, the album does try to mix things up a bit, but only on a few occasions. If the album had better flow or more diversity this would be a 10/10 record for me.


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## mikah912 (Jul 18, 2018)

Razerjack said:


> Uber solid material from top to bottom, the vocoder('cynic' vocal) stuff seem to really work as well. However I agree with the 'undynamic' part, the album does try to mix things up a bit, but only on a few occasions. If the album had better flow or more diversity this would be a 10/10 record for me.



Exactly. Nothing's bad, per se, but there are just too many variants on the same structure. I want to hear acoustic/string sections like "Weltseele" or crazy mid-section solo affairs like "Velocity" or any of the beat tricks they used to break up songs in the past.


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## NoodleFace (Jul 18, 2018)

I really like this but what kills the album for me are the solos. First off, his playing is incredible so don't let me take that away. But.. they don't feel metal? They're kind of low gain and almost always on what I think are very boring and laid back progressions. The solos seem very out of place on a tech death album.

I could be the only one that thinks this. It's very noticable on a song like Mortification where the song is heavy as fuck.


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## Kruger667 (Jul 26, 2018)

I have not listened to this album in full. Unfortunately what I have listened to sounds like a compilation of all the bad parts of 'Choir of Spirits'.

- Drums that don't groove with guitars (feels like constant drum fills)
- Uninspired / unfinished guitar solos
- Overuse of icepicky riffs (....... all notes the same duration with palm muted pedal tone and open high notes)

--------------------------------------x----
-----------------x---x-x---x---x---x-------
-----x---x---x-------------------x---------
-x-x---x---x---x---x-----x---x-------x-x---


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## Metropolis (Jul 26, 2018)

I know it's tech death, but does it have any memorable songs like you can find from Cosmogenesis or Omnivium albums? I think not  Production also sounds way too dry and polished.


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## justin_time (Jul 26, 2018)

I've never understood why the production on each Obscura album sounds so weak, it just does not complement the band's impressive technical skills in my opinion. I find myself going back to Necrophagist - Epitaph instead.


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## MFB (Jul 26, 2018)

Metropolis said:


> I know it's tech death, but does it have any memorable songs like you can find from Cosmogenesis or Omnivium albums? I think not  Production also sounds way too dry and polished.





justin_time said:


> I've never understood why the production on each Obscura album sounds so weak, it just does not complement the band's impressive technical skills in my opinion. I find myself going back to Necrophagist - Epitaph instead.



 to both of these, I've listened to this 3 times, all of which have started with me needing to turn up the radio and then getting maybe 2/3rd of the way through the album and wondering how close it is to being over


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## squids (Jul 26, 2018)

I'm relatively new to Obscura (have skimmed through cosmogenesis and omnivium, was told akroasis i could just skip), Diluvium is by far my favorite. extremely tight and not overly complicated, just good tech death. Really like the spacey/etherial vocoder stuff as well. one complaint is that the solos are kinda weak in volume, which is strange cause they absolutely rip and i love the lower gain sound.


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## anomynous (Jul 26, 2018)

Surprised at the reaction here. I love the album, Diluvium might be my second favorite of the “concept albums.”


Although I love all their material so who knows


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## noise in my mind (Jul 27, 2018)

The new album is awesome! Very concise song writing! I like all their albums for different reasons. I don't base if an album is good or not by arbitrary things like differentiation of tempo or tunings. I just like well written song, and this album is full of them.


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## chopeth (Jul 27, 2018)

MFB said:


> to both of these, I've listened to this 3 times, all of which have started with me needing to turn up the radio and then getting maybe 2/3rd of the way through the album and wondering how close it is to being over



I'm with you, with earlier albums every song was a new and fresh revitalization of my interest, those albums I never get tired of listening, but after half a dozen of opportunities I gave Dilluvium, I still don't get catched by virtually anything and at song 7 or 8 I'm bored as hell or away with the fairies.


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## MFB (Jul 27, 2018)

chopeth said:


> I'm with you, with earlier albums every song was a new and fresh revitalization of my interest, those albums I never get tired of listening, but after half a dozen of opportunities I gave Dilluvium, I still don't get catched by virtually anything and at song 7 or 8 I'm bored as hell or away with the fairies.



That's literally the exact point I tap out as well, can't really go by the track names but I want to say it's like 30 seconds in to Last Aeon and then I just turn it off


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## squids (Jul 28, 2018)

after spending a little more time with the album, i do kind of understand what you guys are saying about everything sort of sounding the same. it is all relatively the same tempo, however i still like it. Clandestine Stars in particular reminds me of Demonocracy combined with Planetary Duality, which id say is pretty tasty


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## MFB (Sep 26, 2018)

So, I caught the DILUVIUM tour that rolled through Worcester last night. From headliner to opener it went: Obscura > Beyond Creation > Archspire > Inferni > Exist > The Last King > Beget of Nephilim (I think that was their name, I forgot honestly). Tech death is rad and all, but no concert should be six bands, this thing was ABSURDLY long, specifically SIX HOURS LONG. Got in at 6 with doors, didn't leave till 12:30 on a Tues night. I knew I was taking today as a "work from home" but I pity anyone who didn't. 

The first two bands did their thing, typical "we're small bands trying to get our name out" I just wish more of them would play to their strengths and not try do this overly "Get those fucking hands in the AIR!" bit when the entire crowd is like, 1/10th of the total audience by the end of the night. 
Exist ran into some problems with their cables somewhere, but they got it sorted out and did a solid set; vocals reminded me of the Tampa FL scene. 
Inferni came on afterwards, no issues, just came on and rocked it. 
Archspire is a band I know more for their technical aspect than their song writing chops, and I still stand by that - lots of stuff going on, none of it really making a dent in me. 

Beyond Creation, bias I'm sure, but absolutely crushed it like you'd want and expect them to. They did two of the new songs, I think three off of Earthborn Evolution, and Omnipresent Perception from their first album. Just absolutely crushing and I was lucky enough to make my way to the 2nd row to avoid all the circle pit shit that came from before with Archspire.

Obscura, this one's an odd-ball as no one else should realistically see the show that we and the Canadian audiences saw, as Steffan had his passport stolen and couldn't be there - so they rotated vocalists from all the openers and Rafael carried the guitar work on his own. HUGE credit to him, like, seriously, he's a young dude put in a tough spot with everything that's gone on with the Obscura 2nd guitarist spot but he's owning it. Linus looks so god damn happy to be on stage, it's really refreshing to see given how much of metal seems to be "black clothes, black guitars, look badass" but he's just up there killing it on the fretless. Warning to anyone who is right up close to the stage, depending on the venue, you MAY get hit with a headstock if you're not careful. 

All around, it was rad as shit to see Obscura AND Beyond Creation together, despite the overall aches and pains from a six hour tech-death concert, and about two of that was without plugs to get the full "I'm seeing Obscura and Beyond Creation together in one night" effect

I'm also convinced that the secret to being great at tech-death is having long hair being blown by a small fan while playing, it's got to be


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## takotakumi (Sep 26, 2018)

MFB said:


> So, I caught the DILUVIUM tour that rolled through Worcester last night. From headliner to opener it went: Obscura > Beyond Creation > Archspire > Inferni > Exist > The Last King > Beget of Nephilim (I think that was their name, I forgot honestly). Tech death is rad and all, but no concert should be six bands, this thing was ABSURDLY long, specifically SIX HOURS LONG. Got in at 6 with doors, didn't leave till 12:30 on a Tues night. I knew I was taking today as a "work from home" but I pity anyone who didn't.
> 
> The first two bands did their thing, typical "we're small bands trying to get our name out" I just wish more of them would play to their strengths and not try do this overly "Get those fucking hands in the AIR!" bit when the entire crowd is like, 1/10th of the total audience by the end of the night.
> Exist ran into some problems with their cables somewhere, but they got it sorted out and did a solid set; vocals reminded me of the Tampa FL scene.
> ...


Awesome dude! Im catching them up here this weekend on Atlanta...probably going to be my show of the year.

I've seen Exist and Archispire before and their live perfomances are unrealll
I have been dying to see Obscura and Beyond creation for years...you have no idea how pumped I am haha

...on another note Diluvium has grown on me after various listens haha
I am enjoying this album far more than when the first songs were teased.
Diluvium is still the worst title track for me though haha 
Ekpyrosis is classic/textbook Obscura, definitively my favorite of the album, which Etherial skies being my favorite solo.


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## MFB (Sep 26, 2018)

I've been out of the concert game for YEARS, and even as a teen, I had never been to anything like this man. It was crazy. I was at the point where I was honestly going to travel to Canada to see Beyond Creation because it seems like they never play the US for whatever reason.

Exist are someone who I'd like to see again in a better venue, they didn't have the best sound and I'm not sure if there was other technical issues, but when the sound is on point from them I'm sure it'd be killer. Archspire's vocalist was killing me, he looked like a slam version of Sully Erna and he was like, constantly going. I didn't realize that for as much is going on with guitars/bass/drums, there's usually vocals doing just as much.


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## Rosal76 (Sep 26, 2018)

takotakumi said:


> Awesome dude! Im catching them up here this weekend on Atlanta...probably going to be my show of the year.



Damn, Tako, you're lucky to see all those bands on this tour. I'd love to see Beyond creation and Obscura on this tour and see Rafael perform live. Hey, if you can, bug the shit out of Simon and Kevin (from Beyond) about releasing guitar tablature books for their albums. LOL.


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## shredmatters (Nov 4, 2018)

This!


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## takotakumi (Nov 5, 2018)

shredmatters said:


> This!



Wonder if they finally corrected the tabs.
I retried learning some stuff last year and the Aevum tab-aside from others-was so wrong.


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## chopeth (Nov 6, 2018)

^Old book, the one with impossible stretches?


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## takotakumi (Nov 6, 2018)

chopeth said:


> ^Old book, the one with impossible stretches?


I have both, the first one that came out and then the 2nd edition which they sent to anyone having the wrong 1st edition
but I think it still is wrong on some parts haha

They were giving the pdf for "free" on their site some years ago as well


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## Rosal76 (Nov 6, 2018)

takotakumi said:


> Wonder if they finally corrected the tabs.
> I retried learning some stuff last year and the Aevum tab-aside from others-was so wrong.



Tako, what was wrong on the Aevum tab?


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## chopeth (Nov 7, 2018)

takotakumi said:


> I have both, the first one that came out and then the 2nd edition which they sent to anyone having the wrong 1st edition
> but I think it still is wrong on some parts haha



I have both too, and I'm curious about what parts do you think are still wrong.


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## CreptorStatus (Nov 7, 2018)

Rosal76 said:


> Tako, what was wrong on the Aevum tab?



Cant remember specific riffs but most the tabs were super wrong with fret positions. Aevum had some fast riffs with stretches from the 1st fret to the 8th fret. There was also tabs for a solo included in the book that wasnt on the actual song lol. At least all this was in the first edition.


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## Rosal76 (Nov 7, 2018)

CreptorStatus said:


> Cant remember specific riffs but most the tabs were super wrong with fret positions. Aevum had some fast riffs with stretches from the 1st fret to the 8th fret.



Ahhh. That's good to know. I was actually listening to the song yesterday and I like it a little better. Maybe one day, I'll learn a few riffs from the song.



CreptorStatus said:


> There was also tabs for a solo included in the book that wasnt on the actual song lol. At least all this was in the first edition.



Yeah, the Transcendental serenade keyboard solo that never made it. That was weird. I was going crazy trying to find it in the song. LOL.


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## takotakumi (Nov 13, 2018)

chopeth said:


> I have both too, and I'm curious about what parts do you think are still wrong.


Like someone posted above, some odd stretches, and the "circus riff" at 4:50 is off as well.
I had another friend who is great at learning by ear and I sent him the tabs I had for celestial spheres and I think he did a similar comment.

On a related note, the same guy was learning the intro solo to Etherial Skies the other day and said that the intro solo on the new tab book is wrong as well since its missing the open notes haha We got the "official" tabs from whomever has been posting the guitar pro versions of the tabooks on UG for comparison. This is sad cause I thought the tabs were from the official members this time since there was no drama unlike with Akroasis.

...is Cosmogenesis the only correct tab book? 

BTW no hate towards Obscura...I still love them to death but this would be the 3rd consecutive wrong tab book haha


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## shredmatters (Oct 9, 2019)




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## Necropitated (Oct 9, 2019)

I decided to learn one of the songs of Diluvium. So here's my video of Clandestine Stars


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## 777timesgod (Oct 11, 2019)

Necropitated said:


> I decided to learn one of the songs of Diluvium. So here's my video of Clandestine Stars



Nice work, I can never bother to memorise their songs, I always peak at the tab while playing.


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