First of all, I’d like to give my deepest apologies to everyone who’s involved in Obtest for putting this review online so late. Due to my RSI problems I was forced to postpone this one. My excuses.
Sometimes I wonder where they keep coming from, all those bands that I’m not yet familiar with. The best example for this year to me is Betzefer from Israel, but now I got in contact with a band called Obtest, a band from Lithuania. When reading the biography and learning that this is actually the third release, I feel somehow ashamed. On the other hand, I realize that the fact that I’m actually AM getting in contact with their music, could and should be an enrichment for me and everyone that cherishes metal music, especially because the lyrics are written in Lithuanian.
Let’s make a position: is the fact that a band is singing in their native language a positive or a bad thing? Before reading further, I’d like you to think about this please.
I remember an interview with Rammstein where one of the members said that the lyrics from all those English bands didn’t give a damn as long as they could become drunk to the music. Now pick a cd in your mind that is not in your own, or favorable language and think again.
This procedure, of thinking about what you’ve just listened to, is exactly the thing I had to do when I listened to the heavy metal Obtest for the first time, and the second time, and the third time and I must say that I’m still not convinced what the main cause of this reflection is. I’ll come back to that later on.
The music is not that complicated to listen to, but have a lot of quality to offer. Especially the guitars are doing a great job, varying in a lot of heavy ways, without getting boring of annoying. The drums could be accentuated a little bit more in my opinion, because they’re hard to hear. This could off course be a choice the band has mad, to put the guitar in front and the drums in the back, but I do miss the felling of sensing a whole band a little bit. The vocals are ok, not special but certainly decent. Not forcing, yet raw and powerful. On the other hand, I think a lot of singers could do better but that’s not the issue in this case.
The cd has been composed pretty well. At first, I reckon some hardcore influences, but as the disk continues, the heavy metal, trash and even melodic influences are clear to notice. All of this leading into a decent piece of art as one would say.
But then I still have to come back to the language. Imagine this: you’re an art lover and you’ll find yourself at an art gallery. It’s a little bit disorderly and dusty, but from one specific scene of art, a few very promising artist have come together and make this gallery. As you walk around in the building, giving every single piece a decent but no hart filling look, you start and stand still in front of this one piece of work. You stare, and stare, turn your head, take a step forward, backward but still don’t know what to think but to think about this piece of art. And because you just can’t stand the it that you, actually you can’t come up with a thought; you decide to by it and take it home with you.
When you return home, you put the work in a specific place where you can have a closer look at it. And as the time passes by, you forget the work you’ve bought. But sometimes, sometimes you’ll go back to the place where you’ve placed it to take a look at it and think about this strange, intangible and integrant piece of work.
Obtest, Lithuania, please come again soon and bring me more….