Obfuscate’s ‘Mass Confused Darkness’ delivers a most brutal and creepy demonstration of peak Australian Death Metal from the golden age year of 1992. This Brisbane based short lived band only put out this single kickass demo and then promptly self destructed. Unfortunately, that means this is all we’re gunna get from Obfuscate. Luckily for us it is a twenty-two minute violent whirlwind of bass heavy Death Metal butchery straight from the depths.
The recording sounds dusty as fuck with super loud bass, just the way I like it. I like the production with its clicky drums, it’s the right amount of click. The groove parts clack around like a skeleton dancing on a grave and the tone accentuates that aspect. The drummer also truly, primitively, pounds the ever living fuck out of the toms on this demo and it’s very barbarian and wild. Rewarding material through and through. These chunky lumbering axe wielding riffs bleed out beneath melodic lead parts emitting their final dying gasp and
the bass is mumbly, pointed and it slithers across the rest of the swampy music here.
Guttural, heinously abyssal vocals straight from the ninth circle are a standout but all the instruments here sound very dismal. A comparison would be to the vocalist from Infester, just disgustingly brutal and low-end heavy vocal work perfectly fitting the style of Death Metal presented here. The drums and guitar are especially locked in well together being brothers (I’m pretty sure at least!) which is always cool, like in Sepultura, Deicide or Rotting Christ. ‘Conscious Dismemberment’ is great song with a crazy name I love that one in particular but guys look this whole release has riffs that are so murky they must have been unearthed from some dark Australian mire.
From the merciless grinding blasts, the blown out loud as fuck production, or the absolutely shredding solos that are just straight ripping chaos, if this band released more demos or a full-length they would have been bigger and more known for sure, there’s tons of potential here. A true hidden gem in my opinion. Give it a go if you are into super low end brutal leaning material or really just in general if you like Death Metal, this is great stuff and worth your time.
