Split – #Levendleed / #Obskvvr

Band: Levendleed / Obskvvr
Title: Split
Label: War Productions (LP) / Back From The Grave Tapes (MC)
Release Date: 1 October 2021
Country: Netherlands
Format Reviewed: High-quality Digital Format

To let you in on some of the ideas centered around this split, the main themes are manic behaviors and death and these four songs expound on the theme and bring that out in darker, brutal, expression that leaves the listener questioning the practices of day to day existence. It’s a real in depth look at the topics that resonate with many of us, expressed in a raw state in these four songs. Yet each song is produced and sound: you hear the raw, but also the underlying notes and the fullness of music that keeps you tethered to the journey. Both Joe Sinner and Thomas Acid are long time friends who decided to combine their considerable talents in this split and give you a taste of what they both came up surrounding the ideas of death and mania.

As a must mention, the album art, which depicts four rats, symbolize the bringing of death and disease and is perfectly suited to the theme of this split which deals very thoroughly with the related topics.

Let’s check this out…

The man behind Levendleed is Thomas Phillip Acid, a multi-talented musician who takes Levendleed down some dark, depressive routes, and doesn’t spare the listener in the depths of virulent emotions. His singing comes from such a deeply depressive state combined with the pure unmitigated rage that is felt in his lyrics and performance in the two-song portion of this split. In summary, he gives it all, and it’s a hair raising, effective, feeling of here, all of your hurt, all of your fury, all of the emotions that are hard to admit to as well as sing about, here, here is where you can let it flow. He does just that, masterfully, brutally, and with precision.

The first track is,” Manisch” (Manic), this starts in a discordant echoing. Almost machine-like building of layers, felt as sinister and triumphant at the same time. Thomas lets loose in his vocal, roaring, and screaming to drums that are paced and deliberate. Guitars, to me sound so sinister and furious in the energy and riffing. A sample of the lyrics for this track are: “and here’s the day, broken glass cuts my feet, just to feel something different, then the manic sharp pain that stabs my heart everyday.

The second track “Destructief” (Destructive), begins in an atmospheric discordance. Purposefully and strongly expressed. Thomas’s vocal takes on the deep, roaring belligerent tone to perfection. Tempo is heavy, heavy in pacing of guitar riff and drums and heavy sense in the topic of the track as well. A sample of the lyrics are, “let me die until I am nothing more than dust and mold, a pool of corpse fluid consisting of maggots and shit, the stench unbearable..”. Killer lyrics, and the song itself is a celebration of depressive metal.

The band Obskvvr is by a one-man dynamo, Joe Sinner, in this his debut.

In these next two tracks, he jumps into the pool of death and lets the creative, unflinching exploration take hold of him.

His first track is ”Shallow and Unmarked”, and in this Joe embraces the possible thoughts and emotions of a murder victim. The first whispering spoken brief intro is “just resting, waiting for a new life to come. ”..Followed by the vocal which is eerie sounding and brutal in equal amounts.

The track continues in explosive guitar and drums, with some slower paced tempo changes which stand alone and bridge to the more furious tone and tempo already established. The lyrics, damn. I must say, the imagination for this really stood out for me, a sample of them are: “ I know the wait begins for someone to find me, hopefully I am not only dental records, skin and bone, I hope I don’t end up shallow and unmarked..” The song ends in a woman’s voice speaking, “so we wouldn’t feel anymore pain..”

The final song “Remains”, is a continuation of “Shallow and Unmarked”. Its an acceptance of our death and a longing for our remains to be found and warmed by the sun. The sound of the track begins in a melancholic inspired guitar, slow and heavy. This track is definitely hitting the darker, depressive side of metal. Featuring through this track is a piano note, played again and again, to increase that melancholy already heard in the music, and the longing to be found one day. A lyric sample is “I know I’m dead, but let me enjoy you finding my body, and uncovering my remains”.

This album is darker depressive, and sometimes it’s the only thing that makes sense in a turbulent space. It’s like fully embracing the emptiness and emerging with that experience within. Finding a voice for those places that are difficult to feel. I feel that this joining of forces of Levendleed and Obskvvr does just that: gives a place to be in that darkness and come out the other side intact and wiser from it. I give an 8/10 Metal Marie

Bands

Levendleed
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Obskvvr
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Labels

War Productions
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Back from the Grave Tapes
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8/10 To greatness and glory!
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