I have been a fan of Russia’s brutal death metal masters, Ossuary Anex, since their Awakening debut album close to a decade ago.  They have morphed into a brutal slam death metal band into some more technical death metal realms throughout their other releases and on their new 3^rd album Obscurantism Apogee Ossuary Anex bring back more slam elements, but really go for the throat with intense brutal death metal.  I also love seeing a band progress in many areas and in terms of production, while their other releases sounded great, this new album is on a whole different level of professionalism and sounds like a big budget production.

9 songs in 43 minutes and starting off with “Contempt of God”, there’s an intro of sorts right before the monster stop n start blast and then going into a nice mid-paced groove, before the vintage 90’s galloping death metal beat rolls in.  Vocalist Kirill sounding eerily similar to Frank Mullen off the Despise the Sun ep.  So it’s super brutal and venomous.  Drums are chest collapsing  yes that production is so damn heavy it will throttle you with a Jim “The Anvil” piledriver to the mat. Many intricate drum patterns and the guitarwork is spot on and the riffing is the best the band has ever achieved.  About a minute left to the song the monster groove section is beyond punishing.

The title track features a guest vocalist appearance by label owner and Avulsed singer Dave Rotten.  I have such mad respect for Dave.  I have followed him from the Repulse and Drowned Records days.  Hell he is responsible for releasing one of the greatest death metal albums of all time – Pyrexia’s Sermon of Mockery and yes I still have the original copy!  Anyway the title track alternates with brutal blasts and I can pick his gutturals at the 2.20 section – around that area are some excellent vocals and growls.  One of the things I notice a lot on Obscurantism Apogee, is that start and stop style blasting.  It’s really cool and kinda different, maybe because they use it frequently.  Pay attention to the end of the song with that last 30 seconds creating a sinkhole slam.

I have been in touch with the guitarist Max for several years now and he has been a longtime supporter of my vocal work in and out of Internal Bleeding.  When he asked me a few years ago if I would be interested in doing vocals for the new Ossuary Anex album I was like, absolutely.  As I previously stated I was already a fan of the band and had all their music – so I was super honored.  He actually was offering for me to do the entire song.  So generous, but sometimes I get a bit…, what’s the word…being asked to be a guest on an album I am extremely humbled that a band would want my vocals on their album, so the honor is all mine.  I always feel it’s more of an enhancement with a guest vocal appearance and I do not want to detract from the band’s focus and make it all about me, so I declined the entire song offer.  So I am on 2 songs; the last 2.  The main one “The Beyond-Man” features several long Rini signature growls as well as me throwing in a yup at one point.  And then vocals across the song and towards the end.  Then the last and longest track on the album, “The Great and Celestial Massacre” (love the name), has a long growl from me towards the beginning of the song.  So yes thanks again fellas – the collaboration came out awesome and the songs are quite intense.

Ossuary Anex’s Obscurantism Apogee is severe brutal death metal seeing the band making leaps and bounds as song writer’s and having one of the most bludgeoning productions, in recent memory.  You feel that gut punch over and over and over again and all the instruments sound excellent.  The layout of the booklet is exceptional and they even threw in a live shot of Dave for his vocal appearance and a recent live shot of me from the Internal Bleeding tour, 2 years ago, for the Bloodletting Tour.  So that is really something super cool for me to see.  If you love ultra-brutal death metal, played exceptionally and with deliberate conviction you have to pick up Obscurantism Apogee.  Please like Ossuary Anex’s FB page and the band is also on Bandcamp.  The band has worked very hard on their musical progression and it truly shows.  Top notch.  Buy or Die!!

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