One of my favorite contradictions in music is calling a brutal death metal song "beautiful". To someone unfamiliar with metal, one listen to a death metal growl may scar them for life, leaving them with no hope for the state of the genre. But if you are willing to dig a little deeper, perhaps look past the harsh vocals, then you may find some beauty blended in with the brutal vocal approach.
That brings me to one of my latest metal discoveries, Ne Obliviscaris, a little progressive black/death metal band hailing from Australia. They approach the "beauty & the beast" vocal style like no other band I have ever heard, often overlapping the clean vocals with the black metal shrieks and death metal growls. They also have another element that I have never heard in the genre before - electric violin. And we're not talking a few strokes of the violin here and there. I mean some serious violin playing by Tim Charles (who also provides the clean vocals on the album). And therein lies the overwhelming beauty found throughout the entire album.
"Forget Not" is the first song I heard by these guys and I was immediately sold on them. The song opens with a 6+ minute instrumental section filled with beautiful violin playing, epic guitar sounds, and bombastic drumming. We are then graced with Tim's gentle, yet powerful vocals. Xenoyr eventually comes in with his manic vocals, overlapping the clean vocals. The whole way through, you get filled with this feeling that the song is literally exploding until it finally comes to a sudden halt after 12 incredibly epic minutes. This song is sheer, ethereal beauty.
If you, like myself, find light in darkness and beauty in the extreme, give this song a spin.
Love it
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