Published: May 14, 2017

*Italian version of review can be found here

Another challenge came, another challenge accepted. After going through sleepless nights to tell you about Arkhaeon's "Beyond", here I am, dealing with another single track release. This record comes from the mind of the Swedish black metal band Obitus, a duo composed of Anders Ahlbäck (all instruments) and Johan Huldtgren (vocals), who were helped for the occasion by Fredrik Huldtgren (death vocals sections) and is entitled "Slaves Of The Vast Machine".

«If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.»

«No questions / No answers / Is this what your life's become? / Was your life always this cheap? / There is the line / This is where it ends.»

«if life matters, life is worth losing for there be life if has to be worth living / I choose Death.»

You will be wondering why I reported since the earliest moments these quotes extracted from the lyrics before going deeper into the album, and the answer is simple: because they are able to represent its dystopic, totalitaristic, deviated, insane to the bone and relentlessly decadent essence.

Obitus' performance winds up without mercy, perverted and excruciating inside a forty-five minute long single act, where cessation of hostilities is not admitted. The landscape is monochromatic and faithful to the black, fed up with dissonant chords and tremolo picking, supported by bitter tightly programmed drums and with vocals (of black metal origin, with some death oriented parts) that increases the violence a lot. The results obtained by this devastation doesn't foresee any sort of future, hope or light, to the point that human annihilation (you made your bed, lie in it) seems to be the only acceptable, and inevitable, solution.

I won't bore you pointlessly, realizing a list of the possible — and moreover, not difficult to pinpoint — influences that you can find inside the music created by these Swedes, neither I will drone on describing "Slaves Of The Vast Machine". Once the CD starts, the album will be on you without compromises, by making you understand without any doubt if Obitus are good for you or not. If you feel satisfied by the collision with waves of furious, albeit reasoned, ruthlessness, you would have enough reasons to buy this without any regret. Tomorrow? It could never come.