Obsolete Tomorrow – The Burden Of Forever

Band: Obsolete Tomorrow
Album: The Burden Of Forever
Genre: True Yorkshire Death Metal
Release Date: N/A
Label: eMortal Records

Obsolete Tomorrow is the solo project of Driffield-based metal overlord Lee Rule [Ravenage, Windrider, ex-Divine Sinn]. Now, I’ll be honest, the debut release from Obsolete Tomorrow, that was released back in 2010, literally made me wet myself with excitement like a pre-pubescent teenager. The second I found the newest release, The Burden of Forever, I wet myself again in excitement. Unfortunately, I have no clean underwear now… Not that your innocent minds needed to know that, eh? I think I’ve prattled on enough about my lack of bladder control, so how about some prattling about The Burden of Forever?

The raw guitars and vocals that introduce the title track, The Burden of Forever, take the listener surprise and launch them into a passage of grand and majestic sounding guitar work which progresses into a savage and terrifying onslaught of demonic vocals and barbaric guitars which scream through the speakers like a metallic choir of hard rocking angels. The drums act like a palpitating heartbeat, transitioning perfectly with each change of the track, adding that extra crunch with the bass. The keyboards are quite dramatic and sinister sounding, almost like something you’d hear in a horror flick though they bring a solemn sound toward the end of the track.

Resurrected sounds to be the love child of the thrash and death metal genres, without the nasty parts of either. The choir voices give the song an almost God of War-like epic feel. The vocals are much like the raging snarls of a beast unleashing its fury upon the unsuspecting listener. The breakdown just feels perfect with the choir voices injecting the eerie sound of grandeur. And the grand finale of the EP is none other than The Art of Catharsis. The slow intro acts as a powerful crescendo that leads into monstrous train wreck of brutality unimaginable to the average metal fan. Everything seems to fit together like a thousand piece jigsaw. The clean vocals are a shock but a good one. The keyboards seem to add a certain Epica or MaYaN sound, as does the radio voiceover. The guitars are the most impressive part of the track as they seem to change like the waves of the ocean while unrelenting in their impact on the ears. The super heavy part of the song is definitely the biggest highlight of the EP as well.

The Burden of Forever takes the brutality of Beauty Through Chaos and multiplies it ten times over while taking the musicianship to a whole new level. Obsolete Tomorrow is just what the doctor ordered for the dying metal scene that’s being replaced with bands more concerned about their hair than the music and The Burden of Forever is one hell of a heavy side effect of this mighty prescription. And on that note, all I have to say is: Use caution, one does not simply listen to this without earplugs… Unless you really want to hear the full extent of it!

5/5

Nico Davidson

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Hard Riot- Living on a Fast Lane (valkyrianmusic.com)
Lost Effect – Salvation Of One (valkyrianmusic.com)
Incassum – In Vain [2008] (valkyrianmusic.com)
Spires – Spiral Of Ascension [2010] (valkyrianmusic.com)

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