Obscura – Live in Bucharest- gig review

As part of the “DILUVIUM WORLD TOUR”, OBSCURA played in Bucharest supporting the new album. The tour took place within 23 cities in mainly Southern Europe, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. With Dutch melodic death metal pioneers GOD DETHRONED, German black death metal band THULCANDRA and French progressive death metal newcomers FRACTAL UNIVERSE, they hit the road in February and March 2020.

The band stated: “We revised our setlist and perform songs we haven’t played in years as well as a few quite special compositions we never brought on stage before. Don’t miss this killer lineup, show up early to the shows and support all bands!”

Fractal Universe approaches Progressive Death Metal. Having established themselves with 2015’s Boundaries of Reality EP and 2017’s acclaimed Engram of Decline full-length, Fractal Universe released their sophomore album, Rhizomes of Insanity, in April 2019 via Metal Blade Records. The venue was a little empty at the beginning of their set but filled up nicely throughout. The show was short but intense and I’m sure there will be many opportunities for Fractal Universe to reveal their talent.

THULCANDRA was a surprise for me. I appreciate the death/black vibe they approach and, on that stage, they were the authors of a memorable show. The melodious music, filled with solos and warm guitar chords, filled the place. The band name is taken from a Darkthrone demo called “Thulcandra”, coming from the 1938 science fiction novel Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis, where Thulcandra is the name for the silent planet, Earth. Thulcandra‘s live performances have shown a willingness to experiment and step out from the shadow of their inspirations and influences. After a challenging beginning to their existence, Thulcandra quickly made a significant mark in modern black metal while featuring synths and guitars to vary up their sound. They released three full-lengths until now, all of them well-received. Thulcandra was on fire that night! The crowd had a blast as well. You’ve all been to shows where the support band is trying to prove they are worth sharing the stage with the headliners; while their performance may be good, it can also feel a bit strained. It’s hard work to make an impression on a crowd that’s there for someone else.  This was not the case here; Thulcandra was is their native state. Check it out yourself, you can find live videos on our Facebook page! 

On the setlist were songs both new and old. They opened the show with “Black Flags of Hate”. Other songs were “Deliverance in Sin and Death”, “Frozen Kingdom” and “Spirit of the Night”.

Next up was a pure delight: God Dethroned took the stage. The Dutch Death Metal band needs no introduction; I must say that on this occasion they were sounded amazing. The full set of sublime death metal riffs at it’s finest. Precise, raw, full of melody and blast beats, as they self-characterizing, God Dethroned have shown that they are in constant progress as a band. The band released a new album this year, “Illuminati” and they used this opportunity to play new songs. They opened with the title song, “Illuminati” and the venue was once again ecstatic. Then they played some oldies and goodies and the fans went nuts (I recall “Villa Vampiria” was the peak-this was clearly a set for fans). It feels like the years of playing and the recent shows have given God Dethroned considerable confidence and peace of mind in what they do – by now, they have grown into an effortless stage presence and the new material is a statement in this direction.

One noticeable improvement about this show was the extended guitar solos and the more complex riffs… Most tracks, especially the new ones make use of more dynamic and ambitious riffs to elude potentially tired ideas.

I’ll stop right here and say that, in my opinion, they were absolutely brilliant and I hope I’ll have some time to review the new album that I bought on this occasion.

Then it was time for the mighty Obscura to take the stage. They proved that they are an engaging and captivating entity. It was a special privilege to witness this band making their continuous steps on the stairway to success.

To put hard work and time into perspective, I’m expecting big things from Obscura in the next couple of years.

When they started their set I thought…” nothing from the new album”? But, to my surprise, the setlist was really balanced and managed to cover almost the full discography and, to be honest, their entire set was just wow!

“Diluvium” marks the completion of a four release cycle started 10 years ago. (Cosmogenesis, Omnivium, Akroasis, Diluvium) After a while, I started to realize how well the songs were written and,  yes, this album is less technical than pretty much all of their other releases but they put much work into the writing and it absolutely paid off here. I feel this is their most well-written album to date.

They ended the show with an instrumental song “A Last Farewell ” that they played at the encore part and, after this, I decided to call it a day.

 Everyone said it was an awesome gig. Major kudos to Metalhead and Quantic Club for another perfect evening!

Photo credit: Gheorghe Paraschiv

Full gallery HERE