Gorguts - Obscura (1998)

Pounding, twisted technical death metal that defies belief and emetrged during a time when metal had pretty much given up the ghost except for the '90s having a handful of notable releases such as Fear Factory and Machine Head. Hard to believe that bands such as Gorguts continued their weary trudge towards the new millennium but all hail one of the greatest records of the genre. 'Obscura' really is a discordant experience, one so beautiful in its brutal architecture, a record that displays itself as some avant garde downtuned doomfest reliant on those dry, hoarse vocals and weird riffs, sewn together by Roberts' nocturnal drum blasts. 'Obscura' takes death metal into a new dawn, an alien landscape where few dare to tread. From the awkward bass structures of 'Sweet Silence' with its macabre guitars to the otherworldly ten minute terror of 'Clouded', this is supreme extreme metal, and not forgetting the formidable landscapes of 'The Art Of Sombre Ecstasy' with its face battering drums and strangled cries. Hard to describe something so heavy as haunting, misanthropic and apocalyptic, so it's best to put on the armour and step forward into the sound of a crumbling future. 9/10