Xasthur To Violate the Oblivious 2LP vinyl back on black
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To Violate The Oblivious is one of Xasthur's greatest albums. If his number one album would be Subliminal Genocide, this would be his number two album. The atmosphere of this album gives off the exact same feeling I get when I listen to Subliminal Genocide. For those not familiar with that particular album, I have 3 words that perfectly describe this atmosphere I'm talking about: cold, traumatic, depressive.
As always, Malefic never fails to give his songs the most depressing titles. That is something I consider important, because there are many depressing song titles when it comes to the entire genre of depressive black metal. Xasthur's titles seem to have their own sort of style to them. What I basically mean by that is once you read any of his titles, if you've heard his music once, you'd instantly know it was one of his titles. I also consider it important because every single title helps add to the dark atmosphere of the album.
So... what about the actual music of this particular album? The guitars are kind of like a noise wall and the keyboards are some of the darkest ambience sequences I've ever heard. When I say that the guitars are like a noise wall, I certainly do not mean that the production value is bad. It's hard to describe in words what I mean. You'd have to listen to the album for yourself to understand.
The drums are not very fast. Instead, they are slow and dark, but that is to be expected when it comes to Xasthur. However, at some points of the album, I believe I heard double bass drums. That was unexpected and pretty cool. He also uses a lot of the same drum patterns in the album though, which is kind of a let down. The guitar is mostly simple chords. Nothing too special about it in particular. However, I like it. Not everything needs to be complex to be good. Plus, it's not like you can use power chords only and still make it sound like sad music. The guitar playing in general is slow and melodic.
The distorted guitar tone has just the right amount of gain. It also has high mids and high treble frequencies. The tone given to the bass guitar is almost unidentifiable, because once again Malefic made the bass nearly impossible to hear. From what I can make out, the bass sounds like it has the mids scooped and that's it. The production value is pretty good in terms of black metal standards. The atmosphere of the album is amazing. The atmosphere reminds me of winter. It's a very cold, dark, and depressing atmosphere. I love that so much.
Malefic's vocals are as if they were recorded from the depths of hell. He has a bit of a unique vocal style where he drags out most of the words he speaks. All of this is quite an experience to listen to. However, each song seems to follow a formula and eventually, after listening to the album multiple times, it can get pretty boring and predictable. Regardless of this, it is an amazing listen the first time.
My favorite track off of this album would have to be Dreams Blacker Than Death. If it weren't for the fact that this album grows boring the more you listen to it, I would definitely give it a higher rating. The best part of the album is definitely the depressing guitar and the vocals. The worst part of the album is the drums, but that doesn't mean they're awful. They're just a bit too simple for my taste. (Metal-Archives)
As always, Malefic never fails to give his songs the most depressing titles. That is something I consider important, because there are many depressing song titles when it comes to the entire genre of depressive black metal. Xasthur's titles seem to have their own sort of style to them. What I basically mean by that is once you read any of his titles, if you've heard his music once, you'd instantly know it was one of his titles. I also consider it important because every single title helps add to the dark atmosphere of the album.
So... what about the actual music of this particular album? The guitars are kind of like a noise wall and the keyboards are some of the darkest ambience sequences I've ever heard. When I say that the guitars are like a noise wall, I certainly do not mean that the production value is bad. It's hard to describe in words what I mean. You'd have to listen to the album for yourself to understand.
The drums are not very fast. Instead, they are slow and dark, but that is to be expected when it comes to Xasthur. However, at some points of the album, I believe I heard double bass drums. That was unexpected and pretty cool. He also uses a lot of the same drum patterns in the album though, which is kind of a let down. The guitar is mostly simple chords. Nothing too special about it in particular. However, I like it. Not everything needs to be complex to be good. Plus, it's not like you can use power chords only and still make it sound like sad music. The guitar playing in general is slow and melodic.
The distorted guitar tone has just the right amount of gain. It also has high mids and high treble frequencies. The tone given to the bass guitar is almost unidentifiable, because once again Malefic made the bass nearly impossible to hear. From what I can make out, the bass sounds like it has the mids scooped and that's it. The production value is pretty good in terms of black metal standards. The atmosphere of the album is amazing. The atmosphere reminds me of winter. It's a very cold, dark, and depressing atmosphere. I love that so much.
Malefic's vocals are as if they were recorded from the depths of hell. He has a bit of a unique vocal style where he drags out most of the words he speaks. All of this is quite an experience to listen to. However, each song seems to follow a formula and eventually, after listening to the album multiple times, it can get pretty boring and predictable. Regardless of this, it is an amazing listen the first time.
My favorite track off of this album would have to be Dreams Blacker Than Death. If it weren't for the fact that this album grows boring the more you listen to it, I would definitely give it a higher rating. The best part of the album is definitely the depressing guitar and the vocals. The worst part of the album is the drums, but that doesn't mean they're awful. They're just a bit too simple for my taste. (Metal-Archives)