Obeisance – Totaler Krieg Kurzester Krieg

Despite the band has been around for well over three decades and spawns out material on a very regular basis, Obeisance has never been featured on these pages before. And honestly, I only ran into the band when I got the ‘Satanik Shoktroops Auf Doom’ 7” EP that released through Iron Bonehead Productions in 2008. Another confession: I just bought the EP because it was released by that label that I bought basically just everything it released at the time.

But even now, almost twenty years later, the band is still going on and has released a few hands full of albums and (split) EP’s. I can’t say I have heard all of that, but the thing that captivated me while listening to the aforementioned 7” EP is still very much present in today’s Obeisance. Let’s put it this way: if you are looking for some clever, well-composed, refined and overall sophisticated metal, you’d better look elsewhere.

Not before and not now is Obeisance delivering any subtlety or progressive touches of any kind. As ever before, this latest Obeisance album sounds like it was recorded in one take or at least didn’t bother to correct any small mistakes, off-beats or guitars sounding slightly out of tune. That doesn’t mean that these guys are lacking any musical talent, they are just not showing much of that. And, frankly, that is just what makes Obeisance such an overwhelmingly charming band.

Aargh, “charming”. The contrast between the music and that word couldn’t possibly be greater, but somehow it covers what is on offer here on ‘Totaler Krieg Kurzester Krieg’. The band’s mixture of late 80’s Black Metal and furious Thrash still sounds fresh and brimming with primal energy. The blunt force pummelling and savage vocals with the back to basics riffs do remind a bit of early Heretic (The Netherlands). In fact, if you’d add early Countess, Heretic and Bestial Summoning in the old and rusty cauldron it could very well be an album that would feel much in place on the Witches Brew or Barbarian Wrath rosters.

Ugly and simple, but very effective. This is some gnarly Black/Thrash Metal, the way it was meant to be. Just crank out some grainy riffs and bark every song’s title like 666 times and there you have it. Obeisance hasn’t reinvented any wheels before and it is not doing that now, nor will it ever do that in the future. Again, if you look for smooth stuff: get outta here! This is the real deal and, yes, charming as fuck. (FelixS)

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One of those pesky descriptions of the releases / overall sounds of the acts spawning from the darkest corners of the metal spectrum, which is getting more and more abused by its own overuse, is ‘Chaotic’. The music from these places should be aggressive, violent (even volatile) and should induce discomfort in people not used to it. It is supposed to be chaotic, so there really is no need to describe it with an adjective it was supposed to represent.

Yet, at the same time, another thing is getting severely abused in these corners… and that’s the term ‘consistency’ (yeah, yeah, you’ve heard me complain over this thing several times before… and since I’m a woman who is severely bothered with inconsistent men, you can prepare yourself for more bitching about it… until some of you get it right). Most of the stellar moments of these corners are just, literally, ‘moments’. They appear, wreak havoc with a demo and disappear into oblivion for years to come, never to be heard again and only get mentioned in drunken rants of men nearing their elderly days explaining how this release ‘is classic’ (honestly, a recording people who played on never knew existed and it was only heard by three people outside the circle who recorded it, cannot be classic, as it literally doesn’t exist. Yeah, I know, it is severely uncool, even blasphemous to release your music in the underground… because that way people could hear it. Or even, goat forbid, enjoy it!).

And now combine the two, Chaos and consistency. We’ve also discussed this a couple of times already. Peak nearing chaos is impossible to maintain in the long run because it will eventually turn into a joke if it’s not properly balanced. So, walking the line between the two is a meticulous art in its own right. And that’s where Obeisance comes in.

Over three decades of consistent work, releases, playing shows (with a minor hiatus immediately followed by another release) should have at this point turn into either a very stale sound or pretentious self-irony the band is not really aware of. Well, not in this case. The combination of its initial ferocity, straightforward attitude / delivery and most of all, the chaotic consistency have never left this band and after years of line-up changes and other forms of debauchery.

And that’s where two new adjectives which get thrown around a lot, but usually without proper understanding behind them, come in. That’s ‘true’ and ‘fun’. As mastermind Chivo puts it:  “There are occasions where what I’m singing is NOT where it ‘should be’, like mistakes. But those were left there on purpose. We speak of this music being chaotic, so be it. It’s not perfect, it’s not ‘right’. Good, it’s also not pop music!”, which makes a strong point about the music you record should be ‘true’ to your own view of it (since this varies from person to person, there’s no such thing as the definite ‘TRVE’… and so the entire so called ‘not a scene’ implodes and we can all go home or get a vacation).

The entire point of this mess of a review is actually incredibly simple. A band, even the one being active for over three decades, doesn’t have to be stale – yeah, you might know what to expect from an artist, yet that doesn’t mean it eventually gains the right to sound tired. It should be fun (this is a very risky term in these corners as too many people around here don’t have a sense of humor and have serious delusions of grandeur about themselves). Not losing your initial spark while maintaining the balance between the serious and fun after decades is art, no matter how messy the outcome is.

At this point, that’s all you need to know about ‘Totaler Krieg, Kurzester Krieg’. People who love this band for their music, will absolutely love this one as it is proper ‘Obeisance’, the people who are just getting themselves familiar with this band, gained a good starting point and the people who don’t care are just plain and simply wrong. (Black Mary)