Dvylika juodvarnių

I’ll start this off by saying that I’m not very familiar with Obtest’s work, aside from hearing a random song here and there. Seeing them lumped into the same group as Skyforger and others of the like, I was quite intrigued. So, I came into this expecting some Baltic styled black/pagan metal with the usual grittiness and ferocity of others occupying the field. I found a different beast altogether, and not in a good way.

When I first put this on, I was completely taken off guard. Instead of gritty, blazing riffs, I was greeted by riffs that sound like they came straight off of a Dropkick Murphy’s album. After a little bit, the arpeggios kick in and the trem picking starts, but that beginning definitely left a sour taste in my mouth. And, unfortunately, the band really did not do anything to help me swallow it.

Once the vocals started, it was confirmed: I do not like this release. The vocals completely ruin it for me. The singer sounds like a street punk tough guy (think Anti-Flag, Aus-Rotten or Casualties). I have no clue what he’s singing about, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was about how his parents hate him and won’t let him out past bedtime. I know this release is only four tracks long, but the vocals remain the same. No diversity whatsoever. I could only imagine these vocals getting on my nerves even more if it was a full length. And they were already on my nerves after the first song.

The bass is unidentifiable as the production is pretty muddy. The guitars, like I said, have some faster trem picked sections, but for the most part stick to a groove-laden, chuggy, palm muted style during the verses. When the guitars are allowed to open up to full speed, it sounds great, but unfortunately it doesn’t happen too often.

The drums are way down in the mix, but sound pretty standard. There’s lots of double bass and nearly inaudible cymbals. From blastbeats to a thrashy style, there is nothing groundbreaking at all in the drum department. I can’t even tell if there’s a good fill on here, because the production is so shoddy. The guitars and vocals dominate the mix and you just kind of sporadically hear everything else.

The only standout track is the fourth, and thankfully last, song on the album. “Kelias” starts off with acoustic guitars and minimalist drumming and eventually leads into a trem picked solo. Nothing too special, but just light years ahead of the rest of this release. The only downfall on this song is the singer. He tries to chant on this song but utterly fails. It sounds like he has marbles in his mouth or just came back from getting his wisdom teeth out and forgot to pull out the cotton from the sides of his mouth.

I like my black metal and I like my pagan metal. I do not like this. A few trem riffs and a pseudo hardcore tough guy shouting at his microphone does not make for a stellar release. There are worse releases out there, but I cannot, in good faith, recommend this release to anyone. Maybe Obtest’s other albums are better, but this one has me very gun shy about picking up another one.

Obtest (along with Windir) occupy the highest position in my personal top pagan/folk black metal bands chart and this status is really well-deserved. Not only is the music of these Lithuanians highly original, it’s also insanely catchy and enjoyable. What they have in common with other pagan metal bands is the drumming style and the guitar sound, although I personally consider Obtest’s guitars even more buzzing and unclear than it’s usual in this genre. The main difference lies in the vocals. Sung in Lithuanian, clean vocals (well, clean, they sound kind of drunken, hard to explain, you have to hear it :-)), not really usual for a pagan black band, fit Obtest’s music pretty well.

On this four-track EP Dvylika Juodvarniu (Twelve black crows) one can hear all characteristic features of Obtest and even more :-) It’s a pity that this EP is the only album, for which the English translations of the lyrics are not available :-(

The EP starts off with a song with the same name Dvylika Juodvarniu. A song full of typical sometimes even heavy metal Obtest riffs. It could very well be on the previous album Auka Seniems Divams.

The second song is my personal favourite from this EP and one of my favourite Obtest tracks at all, catchy riff in the beginning, catchy riffs in the rest of the song and all in all this song contains all the features, which I love about Obtest. If the song had a better sound, I could imagine it very well on the new album Is Kartos A Karta.

The third piece is a cover version of a homonymous song from a band Anubi (avant-garde black metal), where the guitarist Sadlave used to play. Unlike the original, this version could be enjoyable to listen to :-) The duration was halved, cacophonic passages were filtered, but even so it is not very good song. Covering something from Loits or Skyforger, bands genre-wise closer to Obtest, could produce a much better result.

The EP ends with a slow song Kelias played mostly on an acoustic guitar, which slowly turns into a lengthy solo. Interesting vocals, great atmosphere.

I’m giving quite a high score, high quality pagan metal record with only one weaker spot (third song) which only confirms that Baltic pagan metal shouldn’t be overlooked.

Written for: http://www.metalzone.info