Obsidian is a black/death metal band that hails from California, USA. The band started roughly in 2000, and after a lot of searching around, the band finally reached a complete line-up. Though one of the band members currently lives quite some distance away, they're working hard on material for their first full-length album, titled "Apocalyptic Prologue".
As they've send me a copy of their demo "Enslaved by Nightmares", I was really surprised by the quality of music. Of course it's not a completely mastered amazing album, but for a demo, the sound quality is definitely not bad! Obsidian brings you a mixture of Death and Black metal, with a melodic-organ feel in the background.
From the moment you hit the play-button on your stereo, you will be blasted away with a near 25-minute, 3-track musical composition. The first of three songs "The Edge of Sanity" starts wit a short drum-roll, which is followed by heavy overdriven guitars, mixed with powerful, pounding drums. The song works through some ass kicking riff before the vocals start. A deep, chilled black metal voice, with high pitched screams filling up the parts with no lyrics. "The Edge of Sanity" is very powerful composition, with lyrics that exceed most of the demo-bands I have heard so far. After about five minutes an epic part of the song sets in with a slow rhythm and an organ in the background, creating a very special atmosphere. Just over a minute later the song kicks back to its original speed and power. All in all a very good song with enough energy in it to match a lot of famous metal bands.
"Prophecies Will" is up next, founded as two of the band members decided to pay homage to old-school metal. This song starts more epic and slower than the previous song, though the power of the music is maintained. With the organs in the background creating another great atmosphere, this song starts off very good. After a minute the speed is increased and the vocals start, which sound surprisingly much better than in the previous song. If you though the first song was good, this song is even better! The quality of technical abilities of this demo is proven even more by this song, as the music swiftly changes back and forth between fast screaming guitar work with blasting drums and slow epic parts.
The last song of this demo, titled "Unholy Retribution" adds a more progressive touch to it. With a slow and great instrumental into, which is accompanied by screaming guitar work after a minute this song is a great choice of ending this 25-minute musical tour with. As we get back to the speed and power this demo has had as a main structure halfway through the song, the vocals begin. Again the pitch black voice form the first song, but this time a little more variety in it, which I appreciate a lot.
Obsidian's demo "Enslaved by Nightmares" certainly is great demo in my opinion. Though they have great black and death metal parts in their music, they know how to mix that with epic parts and a little progressive touch every now and then. Obsidian is certainly not a band we should neglect, make sure you give them a listen, and be sure to keep your eyes open for these guys!

Recommendable songs: "Prophecies Will" & "Unholy Retribution"

Rating: 8.5 out of 10 points                                                             Review by Rhoutna