Obscura have a knack for putting together killer lineups for their tours. Last time I saw them, they played with Rivers of Nihil, Beyond Creation and Revocation in what was quite honestly a fantastic evening in London. This time however, they’ve got a slightly different lineup of equally talented bands supporting them and are doing a few more dates than last time as well. Arriving to a packed out Rebellion, the mood in the room was one of anticipation and excitement in knowledge that they were in for a great evening.
Opening up the evening, Canada’s First Fragment took no time to establish what they were all about with vocalist David AB commanding the stage and providing the icing on top of the technical death metal cake. Featuring ex-Beyond Creation bassist Dominic “Forest” Lapointe, the music of course featured some fantastic bass lines and was overall incredibly enjoyable with the crowd slowly warming to them over the course of their set.
After a rather speedy changeover, it was time for a band I’ve wanted to see for nigh on 6 years to come to the stage. Opening with “All Hail Science” from 2016’s Proponent for Sentience, Allegaeon brought the melodic and technical metal together in just the right amounts. Sporting newish bassist Brandon Michael and a new single in the form of “Stellar Tidal Disruption”, the band sounded huge with every detail being incredibly clear in the small room. Kudos to the mix engineer for that. Ending with “Behold (God I Am)” from Formshifter, the band received the first mosh-pits of the night and were nothing short of incredible. I highly look forward to their new album Apoptosis which is coming out soon and to hopefully catching them again soon.
After another quick changeover, Californian prog death metallers Fallujah then took to the stage. Sporting new vocalist Antonio Palermo and session guitarist Danny Tunker (Alkaloid, ex-Aborted), I was curious to see what the reception would be given the mixed reception their latest single “Ultraviolet” received. Having a set compromised of songs from across their back catalogue along with new song “Ultraviolet” (which sounded immense live by the way), vocalist Antonio engaging the crowd rather impressively and guitarist Scott Carstairs providing backing clean vocals at points, the performance felt more live and tighter than the previous times I’d seen them. The crowd seemed to feel that way too with large cheers coming out from the crowd after finishing the songs and at the end of their set.
The stage was then altered with risers and CO2 cannons being placed and Sebastian Lanser’s behemoth of a drum-kit was unveiled. After a short instrumental introduction, the German tech titans that are Obscura then appeared on stage to a thunderous applause. Making full use of the new risers and having a simple yet impressive production, both the band and crowd seemed to be having the time of their lives with smiles all-round. Comprising a set of tracks from their latest release Diluvium along with fan favourites such as “Anticosmic Overload” and “Septuagint” the band was firing on all cylinders with Allegaeon vocalist Riley mentioning before the show “This lineup they’ve got now is killer and they’ve been smashing it every night.”
Part the way through the set, bassist Linus Klausenitzer took to centre stage and proceeded to serenade us all with a rather impressive bass solo. With his signature style and fretless 6 string basses, it provided a rather nice interlude to the set and was met with huge cheers from the now packed out venue. Ending the show with the classic “Anticosmic Overload” from Cosmogenisis, the band delivered a spectacular set and proved that they are still one of the finest technical death metal bands out there.
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