Band:	Datûra (POL)
Album:	Obsidian
Style:	Post-metal
Release date:	June 12, 2024
A review by:	musclassia

01. Venom
02. We Lived Afloat
03. The Valley
04. Ether
05. To The One Who Runs At Night
06. Obsidian
07. The Ocean
08. Back To Your Grave

We normally wouldn’t do front page reviews of summer releases come winter, but for one of the best albums released this year in arguably my favourite genre, I feel compelled to right the wrong that was me completely overlooking Obsidian at the time of its release.

This album is the debut full-length from Polish quintet Datûra, following a self-titled EP two years ago. Poland have a fairly strong track record when it comes to post-metal, when one considers the likes of Moanaa, Entropia and of course Blindead, and judging by this first offering from Datûra, they’re well-poised to further this trend, as their first album is measured, dynamic, patient and rewarding in all the right ways.

The main frustration that I’ve had when listening to Obsidian is having a strong feeling that I’ve heard a very similar band before, but completely struggling to figure out who that could be. After extensive failed searches through my music library, I must instead resort to imperfect comparisons, and perhaps the one I’m most inclined to make is with Obscure Sphinx, but that may just be that they’re a Polish post-metal band with a female vocalist; having said that, Datûra have a comparable range to Obscure Sphinx, albeit with less eccentricities. Other bands that came to mind at one point or another include the likes of Lotus Thief, Blindead, Mamiffer and Eden Circus, but not one of them really gets close to encompassing the full range of what Obsidian offers.

As a post-metal album, it is naturally quite dynamic; there are plenty of soft/loud contrasts and prolonged builds in texture, volume and intensity. There’s plenty of contrasts in opening song “Venom” alone; gently growing from a beginning of clean tones and hushed singing, it flickers in the opening minutes between such subtlety and chunkier riffs with something of an alt-prog accessible complexity to them. There’s subsequently multiple ‘retreats’ back to sparse, bleak atmospheric backdrops, while at the other end the guitars at their most intense start to slightly border on a modern blackened touch with the tremeloing, something also encountered briefly in following track “We Lived Afloat”.

Tying all of these transitions together across the album is Maja Rutkowska, who announces herself as a real talent with this album. There’s such range displayed across the record; frequently she can sing with a real delicacy and tenderness, but also is very capable of giving a more full-voiced and forceful delivery. On top of that are some very adept harsh vocals, including fierce, hoarse growls heard on “Venom”, as well as some slightly raspier ones later on. Finally, there are additional flourishes that cap everything off, whether it be Nordic folk-style ‘echoing’ notes on “To The One Who Runs At Night” and “The Valley”, the swaggering personality imbued into certain notes during “Ether”, or the very unexpected and exuberant super high-pitched notes hit in “The Valley” and “Ether”.

The songwriting itself is perhaps not quite as captivating overall as the vocals, with a relatively low number of truly memorable moments. That said, there’s a lot of merit to many of the tracks here, and some variety too. “We Lived Afloat” is an early highlight, again incorporating both the alt-prog and blackened touches from the opening track, while having several really sustained, tense ratchetings up of the texture and intensity of passages without spilling over. Another really prolonged escalation is during “To The One Who Runs At Night”, which opens with drones and faint electronics, and builds at such a gradual rate without losing its pull on the listener. For some slight surprises in song style, “The Valley” has something of a country feel at the very beginning with the acoustic guitar, and then a slight folky post-rock vibe with a hint of [i]Mamiffer[/b] coming afterwards, while “The Ocean” starts off exceptionally delicately before working its way towards a somewhat folkish feel with a very passing resemblance to Primordial.

There’s also surprises in the vocal decisions taken, particularly with how “Ether” opts for extreme vocals during ‘verses’ in which the guitars are very light and minimalist. The title track has delicate cleans and the harsh roars simultaneously early on; “Obsidian” in general is a good example of Rutkowska’s range, as these opening exchanges are followed by a bolder delivery as the instrumentation turns heavier. The song itself is not necessarily a highlight of the album, although the climactic couple of minutes offer some very satisfying payoff. What is perhaps the highlight of the record, however, is closing song “Back To Your Grave”, first for a really tasty heavy riff that arrives about 90 seconds in, but more so for how the prolonged cleaner building passage that comprises its latter two-thirds evolves, from the ominous drums and drones through to the really lush acoustic/clean guitar strumming that follows.

While I’ve not been able to pinpoint their exact sonic brethren, I’ve hopefully managed to paint a picture as to why Datûra and Obsidian are worth your attention; both the album and its constituent songs are on the long side, but that length is generally put to very good use, as well thought-out compositions are paced very intelligently to deliver some great pay-offs.