The Belarus band Relics of Humanity is back to utterly destroy you with their most relentless release yet! This is their first new material since Ominously Reigning upon the Intangible in 2014 and one major change since then is that they’ve add the legendary vocalist A.J. Magana (ex-Defeated Sanity, ex-Disgorge and ex-Condemned (live)) to their brutal horde. This is no small piece to add to the puzzle and believe me it shows straight from the start this is a piece they have been missing in the past. During the 12 years the band has been going I haven’t really got into them, I mean sure I have a couple tracks on my gym playlist and both their previous releases are solid albums but they aren’t albums I get that feeling I need to take for a spin. That’s the major difference maker as with Obscuration I do, short and sweet as it is with its 16 minute runtime.
Obscuration showcase just about every great element you need for a top tier brutal death metal release. The songwriting is their best yet, which I thought was even their strong side before. Drumming is tighter and have more room than before, guitars sounds meaner and nastier than ever and then we have the insane gutturals from Magana. Can he even do a bad performance? The production is right where I want it to be for this genre, not over-produced gnarly sounding, giving each instrument the right sound (I would like to put the volume up a tiny bit on the guitars though) and in general just making the album feel alive.
As I mentioned before this is a short album, an EP, and the 16 minutes does fly by rather quick. Quality over quantity though and when Relics of Humanity can produce such an evil old school sounding brutal death metal album like this then I will take it every day of the week. One thing is certain, this is the most brutal album you will hear this month and it’s a now looking bright for brutal death metal after a slow January. They even packed this deadly piece of EP in a sweet package on top with covert art from Dan Seagrave (Suffocation, Decrepit Birth, Morbid Angel). I can definitely recommend Obscuration to fans of Defeated Sanity, Unfathomable Ruination, Disgorge, Condemned and Disentomb. Relics of Humanity have now found a sound that works really well for them and I can only hope we don’t have to wait long for a full-length when they are on form.
Written by J.B.
Label: Willowtip Records
For fans of: Defeated Sanity and Condemned
Release date: February 22nd, 2019
Favorite song: Legions of the Unbowed
Score: 4/5 Incredible
The Metal Gamer 