With A Sonication, Germany-based metal band Obscura launch the second of their trilogy concept. The group’s second (seventh overall) album for Nuclear Blast pivots on many fronts. Advanced, elegant, and yet refreshing, „A Sonication“ sums up past endeavors effortlessly as it gazes with purpose and conviction into the future. Obscura are fan-renowned and critically acclaimed for challenging and then expanding upon norms. From Retribution (2004) through A Valediction (2021), the band flourished and made significant progress in a musical genre unprepared for a creative shot of German invention. „A Sonication“ spearheads Obscura into a new era of extreme metal. In 2025, Obscura will lighthouse their musical prowess, thematic complexity, and lyrical ambition on „A Sonication“. The group continue to be a beacon for change. No doubt Obscura’s new stats will amaze, but what they’re focused on is the release of „A Sonication“ and then taking it on the road. Several high-caliber tours of Europe, North America, and Asia are planned through to 2025, with routes are in the works for the band to visit Australia, Latin America, and beyond. Truly, there is no band quite like Obscura. “A Sonication“ proves that persistence, perseverance, and enterprising minds can achieve anything. Welcome to the next level!

Arguably the ultimate progressive metal band of their day, Atheist’s impossibly Byzantine death-jazz proved too advanced even for committed metalheads to stomach. Over the span of three albums admirably recorded in spite of crippling adversity, the band’s inventive but inaccessible style has earned them a lasting respect, but likewise compromised their chances of attaining widespread success.

Atheist started out as typical ’80s thrash metal band. Founded in 1984 by vocalist and guitarist Kelly Shaefer and drummer Steve Flynn under the name of Oblivion and then R.A.V.A.G.E (Raging Atheists Vowing A Gory End), their shuffling lineup only stabilized years later with the arrival of bassist Roger Patterson and guitarist Mark Sczawtsberg. Settling on the name Atheist, the band suddenly began evolving at a fast clip, their gradual path towards an extremely complex brand of death metal documented in a series of compilations and demo tapes along the way. With the arrival of guitarist Randy Burkey in 1988, Atheist secured a deal with Mean Machine Records and issued their first album Piece of Time the following year (when the label went bankrupt, the album was picked up by Active Records). An amazingly dense and challenging record, it’s head-spinning arrangements and dissonant riffing stumped most casual listeners but wowed critics with the sheer audacity of the band’s death-jazz. Tours of Europe, Canada, and the United States would follow, and Atheist had already begun work on a follow-up when tragedy struck. Returning home from a road jaunt supporting Swedish doomsters in February 1991, their van suffered a horrific crash, Patterson dying in Shaefer’s arms by the roadside. The trauma was almost too much for Atheist to overcome but they eventually decided to carry on, and with session work by bassist Tony Choy, the Unquestionable Presence LP was released later that year. Possibly their finest hour, it not only served as a tribute to Patterson, but also managed to perfect the debut’s seething intensity into an even sharper focus. Darren McFarland became their new touring bassist, but following just a few local dates, Shaefer decided to focus on his more rock-oriented side project Neurotica. But Atheist still owed Active Records one more album, so Shaefer, Burkey, and a returning Choy joined with guitarist Frank Emmi and drummer Marcel Dissantos to record 1993’s Elements. Rising to the challenge, Shaefer and company bolstered the use of melody and experimented with a wide array of different musical styles, resulting in a remarkably strong effort considering the band’s hand had been forced in the first place. Then, their responsibilities fulfilled, Atheist finally disbanded and Shaefer resumed his work with Neurotica, although 21st century re-formation rumors have surfaced on occasion. ~ Mike DaRonco & Ed Rivadavia, Rovi

United States-based tech-death masters Origin strike again with their new album, Chaosmos. The long-standing outfit celebrate not only a return to Nuclear Blast but also ring in their 25th year on Chaosmos. The same fury, brutality, and musical savvy that brought Origin critical acclaim and a devout fanbase on Unparalleled Universe (2017), Antithesis (2008), and Origin (2000) returns with reinvigorated intensity, passion, and skill. In 2022, the group—Paul Ryan (guitars/backing vocals), Mike Flores (bass/backing vocals), John Longstreth (drums), and Jason Keyser (lead vocals)—are undeterred by unprecedented roadblocks and global uncertainty as they push forward. Indeed, Origin’s new-era shock and awe mission is complete on Chaosmos.

“The music of Origin is a fusion of order and disorder. Our music is viewed as a meaningless assemblage of infinite perspectives,” posits guitarist/vocalist Paul Ryan with cosmic import.

Formed in Topeka, Kansas, in 1997, Origin have eight full-length albums to their name. The group buzzed early with their 1998 EP, A Coming into Existence (Original Records). Fans of high-caliber death metal and record label representatives had noticed. It was after Origin joined luminaries Nile, Cryptopsy, and Gorguts on the 1998 Death Across America Tour that a monster was unleashed. In 2000, Origin signed to Relapse Records, issuing four full-length albums in Origin, Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas (2002), Echoes of Decimation (2005), and the Billboard-charting Antithesis. While on the label, the group gigged incessantly, appearing on such notable tours as Death Across America 2000, Relapse Contamination Tour 2008, The Summer Slaughter Tour North America 2009, and several successful European runs. Additionally, guitarist/vocalist Paul Ryan was listed on Decibel’s Top 20 Death Metal Guitarists list in 2007. Origin’s subsequent albums Entity (2011), Omnipresent (2014), and Unparalleled Universe garnered praise in Metal Hammer, Allmusic, and Exclaim!, while occupying prime slots on the Occupation Domination 2012, the Devastation on the Nation, and The Hell Over Europe tours. Chaosmos yet again sees Origin’s technically apt death metal in scarily superlative form.

“It’s our third album with the same lineup,” Ryan says. “And I personally feel it’s a continuation of who the band is currently. At the start of 2021, people started talking about a new Origin album, and I wasn’t sure if the world was literally ready for it due to lockdowns/restrictions. In March, I told myself, ‘I will write one song per month until I finish the album.’ When it was completed, I sent over what I had written to the rest of the band. From that point forward, our collective alchemy resulted in what you hear on Chaosmos.”

Merging brutal physical power with an unerringly precise attack, Decrepit Birth are a technical death metal band from Santa Cruz, California. The band’s story begins in the mid-’90s, when vocalist Bill Robinson met guitarist Matt Sotelo, and the two discovered they shared an ambition to create truly uncompromising music. In 2001, things got serious when Robinson and Sotelo teamed up with bassist Derek Boyer and began assembling material. By 2003, the band had developed a reputation for their striking live shows, and they released their debut album, … And Time Begins, with the three musicians joined by drummer Tim Yeung. Yeung didn’t last long with the group, and in 2004 K.C. Howard became their new drummer. After extensive touring, Sotelo began writing material that gave Decrepit Birth a more melodic sound without cutting back on their ferocity. The result was their second full-length album, 2008’s Diminishing Between Worlds. While Joel Horner was playing bass with the band by this time, he didn’t appear on the album, with Sotelo playing bass and keyboards as well as guitar. By Decrepit Birth’s standards, their next album was completed quickly, with Polarity released in 2010 by respected metal label Nuclear Blast; the Robinson/Sotelo/Horner/Howard lineup was supplemented in the studio by guitarists Dan Eggers and Ty Oliver and drummer Lee Smith. By the end of 2010, Sam Paulicelli became the group’s new drummer, replacing KC Howard, and Sean Martinez took over from Horner on bass in 2013. While Decrepit Birth toured hard in support of Polarity, the group took a break after Sotelo became a father for the first time and wanted to stay home with his young son. However, he didn’t stop writing new songs while on paternity leave, and with Sotelo and Martinez recording in their respective home studios and Paulicelli cutting drum tracks at a studio in Canada, Decrepit Birth returned in 2017 with the album Axis Mundi. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi