Lithuanian heathen war metallers Obtest are on the attack on their 3rd studio album. The band started back in 1992, inspired by the then new second wave of black metal, but good ol' heavy metal was the first fascination with the extreme music for these guys.

'Iš kartos į kartą' is reportedly the most heavy metal inspired Obtest work to the date. The black metal roots are very audible in the music. Colder tones of the music are often accompanied by the epic heavy metal melodies and at times the wondrous twin guitar attacks lift the epic feel to the skies. However, the compositions are straight throughtout the album, never reaching the 6-minute mark.

Obtest perform with basic line-up, meaning the vocals, the guitars, the bass and the drums. The band are on energetic attacking gear. The songs are fast, only on the closer the band loosen a bit. The playing is tight, the guitars are everywhere as is the drummer; he's delivering the double kick drum or the blastbeat attacks almost all the time, but manages to color up the beats with some small tricks. During the first few spins the album seemed badly limited, but soon the band's fistbanging attitude and small varying elements in the songs began treacherously affecting my mind. Still, sometimes listening the whole album at once makes me feel somewhat numb. Another thing is, that sometimes those epic and soaring "pagan" melodies are quite familiar, for example with German Thuringian bands. Some of melodiousness reminds of Iron Maiden; loads of guitar harmonics owe to heavy metal of the yore. Even with these traits Obtest sound so unflinching, that they manage to hammer in their metal. And there are no pipes, flutes, choir vocals, which are the biggest clichés of pagan metal style nowadays.

Sound-wise the album is good enough. The sound has a feeling of old, but also carries the modern punch. While the rhythm guitar has the bite, it also has a bassy sound, which might make it sound a tad muddy. Might also be distorted bass, as I think I'm hearing it, down there. There really are no real problems in the sound department. The vocal style is rough-ish clean voice/shout with some gravitation towards the melody. Lithuanian language sound both exotic and good in my Finnish ears. The releases includes the English translations of the lyrics and prologue, plus beautiful pictures from Lithuanian nature. The themes are linked to "from generation to generation, or a long journey from the past", including pagan gods, wars etc.

'IÅ¡ Kartos Ä® KartÄ…' is the first Obtest experience for me, but not the last one for sure. The album might be a tad limited, but if it's this well entertaining, it doesn't really matter. This is one bloody good, gutsy war metal attack anyway!!!

Rating: 8½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
09/01/2005 12:30