Review by Sam on July 4, 2026.

I would advise against listening to this thing sober. Especially if it's your first encounter.

It's taken me years, nigh on two decades, to learn how to properly approach this frankly terrifying record. This is a deformed, malignant, fucked up, repugnant, and deliberately UGLY piece of music. When I first discovered "Obscura" I found it fascinating…yet torturous. I absolutely did not "get it", and I truly had to force myself to get through it, feeling equal parts exhilaration and repulsion. It caused me to experience cognitive dissonance of the highest order. There's that d-word, and I'm only one paragraph deep. It boggled my mind. It grossed me out. It made me intensely uncomfortable. Looking back, I feel like these effects on the listener had to be the true intentions of Luc Lemay when he took this irreversible left hand path across the point of no return, forever.

"Obscura" is an ode to ego death. This is a soundscape for those who have transcended, or who seek to transcend, the carnal state. It is nihilism in the Buddhist sense of the word, meaning to reach a state of nothingness is the endgame, whether that be through meditation, be it through trance, through death metal, or through spiritual death itself.

Dead with pride
Hopelessness behind... I ascent
Feeble minds
Regret in their eyes... They repent
Inner horizon
I glorify my death in peaceful solitude
Obscure concept of blissful imagery

Let's get down to brass tacks beginning at the beginning: the vocals. What. The. Fuck. I believe that Lemay was in the process of dying while laying down this abject wretchedness. What I mean is, he was undergoing the process of shedding his former self, which was informed by societal norms and a fetishist's affection for the occult, and becoming his true self, which is the great beast, Mega Therion, that kneels before no man. What comes out indeed sounds like a dying beast, being deprived of air, breathlessly gasping. These are not growls, nor or they grunts or gurgles. This is the sound of a dying man becoming a god. There is no other vocal in all of extreme metal that sounds like Luc Lemay and the hideous accompaniment of Steeve Hurdle (RIP) on or after "Obscura", or that can compare to them. This will be the reason that you are initially turned off by this record. Just wait'll you here this damnable duo singing a duet on "The Carnal State". It's almost kinda funny. The word "atonal" doesn't begin to describe what's going on here. But if you stick with it, and have patience, and I mean the patience possessed by Tibetan monks, these vocals will be the key to unlocking the mysteries of this megalith, and that is because of the fathomless depth of the lyrics. Lux absentia, undoubtedly.

Now for the guitars. Jangly, wonky, elastic, otherworldly, off-putting, and yes, dissonant. If this was a one-word review, then that would be the word. Lemay and his equally prodigious six string slinging partner Big Steeve do not do things that have been done before on a death metal record, full stop. There are few if any power chords to be found here, no tremolo picking to be had, no shred, no fun. These bizarre chord shapes and patterns have a singular function: to cause discomfort. Imagine how uncomfortable Lemay must have been, having conceived of this material prior to the release of "The Erosion Of Sanity", and practicing it with his mates for five years(!) before they finally found a label bold enough to publish it. Luc shopped it around during this period and was flat out told "no" time and time again, so my eternal thanks go to Olympic Recordings of Elgin, Illinois. I've no doubt that he must have thought he was cooked, his career over...the sort of thing that will make a guy experience extreme discomfort. So as he spent those long years riddled with doubt and depression, it makes perfect sense that he would want to cause his audience to experience the same vibes. These guitars are ugly, and that's really the only word to describe the sound. This was no accident.

A note on pinch harmonics. This was a technique that had been made trendy in the early 90s by Dimebag and Pantera. The way Gorguts implements them here, however, is wholly artesanal. Listen to Hurdle's first band, Purulence, and you can tell that this is a skill that he had been honing long before Diamond Darrell first stumbled upon it. If you can make it to the centerpiece of "Obscura", entitled "Clouded", you will experience pinch harmonics in the form of laser beams emanating from the conjoined third eyes of Lemay and Hurdle.

On bass, I present to you Steve Cloutier. Please do look up his picture on Metal Archives; it's fucking beautiful. Cloutier's instrument represents the singular element of "Obscura" that is unwavering in its blunt force. Yes, he plays weird chords and does things that are intentionally discordant, but the undeniable presence of his bass is always there, never just following the root note (because there is no root note), writhing like great belligerent Cthulhu beneath the ocean floor. Allow me to refer you to the opening moments of "Nostalgia", and then again to the groove portion of the same song. These are no doubt simple basslines, but they absolutely bludgeon the listener into submission. I said "groove" because it sounds a bit like Roots Bloody Roots, only performed by elder gods banished to the nether regions of the fifth dimension.

Finally, on drums, we have the mad scientist known as Patrick Robert. This is one of those dudes who flat out refuses to play a straight beat. He ferociously blasts, he knocks your dick in the dirt with his double kicks, he colors his canvas like Picasso with china, splash, and bell of ride accents, and he never plays the same beat twice. I would describe his blasting as "atmospheric", because there is not one time throughout the duration of "Obscura" where it feels like this band is playing fast. His performance here is simultaneously loose, almost behind the beat at times, yet also skin tight, in terms of rudiment, and this duality only magnifies the schizophrenic nature of this album that was conceived and recorded by aliens.

"Obscura" is often described as having a jazz influence. I find these claims to be dubious. This is a death metal record performed by death metal lifers. They just wanted to create something that had never before been conceived of, and they succeeded, unquestionably. Though Lemay's classical background is well documented, and the grandiosity of classical music is certainly at play here, I think this album is the result of the right brain hemispheres of Lemay and Hurdle, two musicians who were unimpeachable in their artistic ethic, coming together to birth this monolithic monstrosity that spawned its very own sub-genre. It's too bad that Steeve Hurdle only joined Gorguts for this singular effort because of what could have been. He continued on with Negativa, and I've a feeling that band is where my personal music journey will next lead me, though I have to admit I'm a bit scared. But isn't instilling fear the original intent of heavy metal?

Rating: 10 out of 10