Viking metal; keywords to me are battleships, beards, swords, rivers of blood and mainly a lot of death. Obscurity hails from Germany and they create Viking black metal, to give everything an even more aggressive touch. Let’s see how Schlachten & Legenden works out for them.

The description Viking black metal should already ring an Amon Amarth bell, although I’m not a fan of that band at all. I am fan of a restaurant called Amon, but that has nothing to do with this issue. Schlachten & Legenden is comprised of mainly high-tempo tracks that unfortunately all tend to sound the same when proceeding further in the album. Sometimes the tempo is brought down just a little bit, but in average it’s all the same. Also the production makes sure there’s no variation in sound at all.

 

It is starting to look like Obscurity has recorded a piece of shit when reading this piece of text above, but I must imply that this is not the case. The music sounds professional and the songwriting is pretty good, it’s just that when you’re halfway the album it’s probably about enough, especially when you’re not a real fan of the genre.

 

But to those into battleships filled with maidens, booty and horny bearded men with a bloodlust that would scare Charles Manson, Obscurity might be a worthy addition to your collection of skulls and bones. I for one am glad that the Lord of the Rings feeling is completely not present on Schlachten & Legenden. I actually get a bit of the feeling Thin Lizzy’s track ‘Emerald’ gives me, and that’s the best track that band ever wrote. No more compliments now, go grow a beard and headbang!