Obsidian Sea - Pathos (2022)^{Release ID: 35398}

It took me a long time to appreciate the early to mid 80s era of doom metal. In fact, if it wasn't for the Metal Academy podcast, I may never have properly listened to the likes of Trouble, Saint Vitus, Witchfinder General and Pentagram. Even with this only recently developed appreciation, I have to admit that I tend to like my doom metal to be much darker and heavier than this classic heavy metal influenced era contained, and it's for this reason that Obsidian Sea have been a bit of a struggle for me. Sure, there's doom metal here, but there's also a very light atmosphere, and a heavy metal /progressive rock approach that takes it out of my comfort zone. It actually reminds me quite a bit of Warlord on occasion, particularly the track Mythos. Heck, a cowbell pops up from time to time, which really tells you all you need to know. In the end I guess I just don't get a tremendous amount out of it, despite not finding anything much to complain about, so I'll simply call this album mildly enjoyable but not particularly for me.

2022 RANKING (68 releases so far)

59. Saidan - Onryō II: Her Spirit Eternal - 3 stars

60. Obsidian Sea - Pathos - 3 stars

61. Stangarigel - Na Severe Srdca - 2.5 stars

2022 DOOM RANKING (19 releases so far)

16. Temple of Void - Summoning the Slayer - 3 stars

17. Obsidian Sea - Pathos - 3 stars

18. Mizmor - Wit's End - 2.5 stars

What an absolute killer intro to opening track, Lament the Death of Wonder, a track that combines doom metal with stoner and progressive rock for a roller coaster ride of a song. This momentum is dissipated a bit by ensuing track The Long Drowning that takes a little while to get into it's stride, although it does have a nice solo towards the end. The album as a whole has a greater stoner/psych/prog influence than their earlier material and there isn't anything inherently wrong with that, but it feels a little inconsistent at times. It's the heavier tracks like the aforementioned opener and Mythos that initially appealed to me most, but there is just so much variety to their doom/stoner template so it never feels like they are retreading the same path on every track and the more I explore the album the more I discover. The production is very good and has a nice clarity and performance-wise the trio are spot-on. Just occasionally I feel that the band resort to a bit of noodling for noodling's sake where I would rather them just get on with laying down another killer riff. The last couple of tracks really up the prog ante and are where things get really interesting, suggesting a possible new direction for the band which may make their next release very interesting indeed. Obsidian Sea are definitely a band who are spreading their wings with this latest release and more power to them.