Upon first listen,
Obsidian's sophomore album,
Point of Infinity (which arrived in 2010, all of four years after their first) appears to reside in the technical death metal crossroads between Sweden's
Meshuggah and France's
Gojira, but further inspection quickly reveals that there's more to the Dutch ensemble than initially greets the eye, or ear, as it were. More ambitious tracks like "Illuminate," "Radiating Light," and "Spectral Pathways" eventually break rank with these two bands to float away on plaintive melodies, hypnotize with dense post-metal riff-clusters, and even indulge in clean-sung vocals. In fact,
Obsidian sounds more like their post-metal-plundering countrymen
Textures on the fleet-fingered "Tidal Waves" and the brief instrumental "The Upward Spiral," which sometimes feels like a rework of
U2's "The Unforgettable Fire," if you can believe that. However, while all of these contrasts certainly help rescue
Obsidian from what might have been an oppressive, rhythmically obtuse downer of an album, there's still enough
Meshuggah-isms in the likes of "Breach," "Desolate Rage," and "Incinerate" to stop
Obsidian short of achieving something truly distinctive and original, as pie-in-the-sky as those expectations can be in this day and age. For the moment, they'll have to accept kudos for crafting an album that's filled with enough imaginative ideas, and impressive enough in its instrumental execution to remain consistently engaging throughout, and that's nothing to be ashamed of. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia