Review OBSCURA ‘A Celebration I – Live in North America’

German progressive death metal outfit Obscura started in 2002 in Munich, Germany and added, over the span of time, six studio albums to their discography. These releases helped the band to establish them as a force in European metal.

What was missing to date on their list of achievements is a live album. Now, the gap will be closed as the band will send ‘A Celebration I – Live in North America’ to the record stores. SAs the title indicates; the songs have been recorded on a tour through Canada, Mexico, and the US in 2022/2023. So, it is not a specific show that builds the foundation for this release which also means that the is a fading out at the end of the songs before the next mind-bending headbanger starts. This doesn’t necessarily destroy the live feeling as the audience is present throughput each of the songs. At the same time the album feels more like a ‘best of…’, performed in a live setup.

The live album represents the different longplayers with a focus on the latest studio effort ‘A Valediction’. The opener is taken from this release, but the band also goes back in time when it comes to their releases. ‘The Anticosmic Overload’ comes from the sophomore record while it is only the debut album that doesn’t contributes with a song.

The sound of the album is excellent. Bandleader Steffen Kummerer worked together with Frederik Nordstöm who took care of the mix and mastering. The result is live album that features a live atmosphere as well as it sounds vivid and dynamic. Only the mentioned fading in and out between songs is a kind of distraction. Besides that, Obscura added a missing link to their discography and allow metalheads, not having listened to band so far, to catch up in good fashion.