Label: Nuclear Winter Records
Date: November 9th, 2020
I remember reading about this band in an issue of Slowly We Rot fanzine. As I’m sure you are now, I thought their name is pretty self-explanatory. I was expecting yet another derivative and primitive take on early Bathory and Blasphemy legacies. Surely there was to be no mistake.
But there was.
By the way, you shouldn’t make a mistake that I initially did. This is not Blasphemathory! This is Blasphematory. There is an “H” missing.
Blasphematory is a fairly new band, though comprised of experienced musicians with long history in many more or less known acts. And “Depths of the Obscurity” is a record that was originally released back in 2019. Nuclear Winter Records handled the CD and vinyl version almost a full year after the album was presented online and on cassette. Furthermore, the band debuted with an EP of the same title, comprised of four tracks that are also present on the album.
But all that is beside the point, even if it sounds a bit weird. The music is the key, so let me delve into the sound emanating from the speakers.
As stated above, this is not a bestial, warmongering combination of death and black metal. “Depths of the Obscurity” delivers a solid block of pure, old school death metal. Instead of striving for ultimate speed and utmost raw ugliness, Blasphematory opted for a more down-to-Earth approach. Calling upon the early masters of the genre, the US band goes for simple, heavy brutality. Taking into account the deep tones of Obituary and technical, yet not overly so, riffing of early Morbid Angel. Somewhere along those lines, but still crossing them left and right, Blasphematory manages to stay within the given boundaries.
Now, the duo offers nothing new. The album bears all the typical marks of primordial death metal. It is dense, brutal, cryptic, atmospheric to an extent, but those are the characteristics you should all be well aware by now. What’s more, out of these 35 minutes of music, you will hardly get a memorable moment that will go down in history of the genre. Far from it.
However, it is easily recognizable that Blasphematory is comprised of two individuals with profound knowledge and appreciation of death metal. Thus, you can count “Depths of the Obscurity” an honest offering to the less critical fans of the genre. They will certainly get a kick out of this album. I’m not all that impressed.
