A sense of patience and timing can make all the difference in one’s performance. It offers the gravity of the material to really sink in and showcase what the listener can really become one with as the work in question takes its time to ensure that there’s far more than a mere inkling as to what kind of power we’re dealing with in a given creation. Doom has always been a perfect vessel for slow burners, and there’s always room for fresh talent. Within their first go at a full-length album, Obsidian Scapes does far more than simple see the opportunity and attempt to seize it for their own. Rather, the German act flourishes.

While there’s always a time and a place for the sort of creations that go above and beyond to deliver a powerful effort that leaves nothing on the table or misses a chance to utterly pulverize its listener, incredibly few things can ever truly compare to a straightforward effort that uses a masterful understanding of the sound to offer us a work that’s as efficient as it is satisfying. Across a lengthy runtime of fifty-one minutes across five compelling tracks, there’s no stone unturned nor any survivors left in the wake of what Obsidian Scapes pulls off within “Death Chants Echo from Aphotic Void”. This is doom metal with no frills and no distractions. A viciously straightforward approach that leaves nothing to chance, offers no reprieve, and is undeniably constant in its onslaughts that are simply fascinating to look upon in these lengthy tracks, Obsidian Scapes taps into the very foundations of what has always made doom a powerhouse of the underground. The soundtrack to an apocalypse for a world that long had it coming, “Death Chants Echo from Aphotic Void” is dark and crushing in nature with Obsidian Scapes constantly and consistently up to the task in such a form that’s nigh-on compelling and entrancing with its crystal clear vocals offering us clear narration for such destruction as the world itself caves and reality ceases to exist in the face of such immensity.

It’s all meat and no fat with what Obsidian Scapes has accomplished here. It’s but the band’s first proper effort, yet it’s clear at virtually every given turn that this is an act that carries weight and has much to call its own even amongst stiff competition. For all that delivered within “Death Chants Echo from Aphotic Void”, weakness is simply not one of them.

“Death Chants Echo from Aphotic Void” releases on June 6th via Darkness Shall Rise!

LISTEN to an advanced track from “Death Chants Echo from Aphotic Void” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Obsidian Scapes on Facebook here.