Search - Hypocrisy :: Osculum Obscenum

Brutal and cutting edge Death metal.

bay_area_thrasher | the middle of the pit | 01/30/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This was not my first Hypocrisy album but after reading Michael Bethancourt's review and hearing about how brutal and evil the music is, I decided to take my chances. When I first listened to this album I was surprised (seeing how this is coming from a person who was introduced to Hypocrisy with "Abducted" and "The final chapter"). The music on this album is grinding, blasting, and rumbling, yet it has a sound of it's own. What separated this album from the crowd was the perfection of a downtuned, throbbing guitar sound that was virtually nonexistent in Metal up until 1993. Since then, countless Nu-metal bands including Slipknot, Korn, Adeema, and Machine head (post "The more things change") have poorly imitated and watered down the style of music found on this disc. Even Death metal bands have copied it. Anyone who listens to Death metal or "Nu-metal" needs to check out this album at one point or another. Hell, I'd play it for some Nu-metal fans just to show them what paved the way for the genre of music they listen to. Won't they be shocked!"Let the Metal flow"-Chuck Schuldiner"

Black Death

Hugo Guiral | France | 05/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hypocrisy is a band I hold respect for. Not so much for their newer releases, Catch-22 and The Arrival, but for their older works such as Abducted and this release, Osculum Obscenum. Their style of harsh death paired with unholy black metal is simply too good to pass up.

The album consists of everything a fan of either genre would squeal with delight over: deep, growly vocals for the death fans; fierce blast beats for the black metal kid in you; hard, thrashy guitars for fans of either genre; and just an overall amped-up, heavy feeling the whole time. This is metal, right?

An interesting moment is their cover of Venom's "Black Metal". It's faster, harder and just more aggressive than Venom had made it; basically, it's how the song should be known as. It's one of the first times I actually enjoyed a cover more than the original.

But don't buy this album just for the cover; all the original material is great as well. Songs like "Inferior Devoties", "Necronomicon" and "Althotas" really stick out and give this album more strength to stand with. Everything else is wonderful, too, but those three are some of the more crushing songs, in my opinion.

Overall, it's a fantastic album. Fans of Hypocrisy, if you don't already have this, quickly scurry off to retrieve it. It's right up there with Abducted, believe me. A must-have."

OSCYULUUUUUM OBSENAAAAAAAM !!!

SOUNDWAVE | Decepticon Headquarters | 09/17/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Every Hypocrisy album has something different to offer. Osculum Obscenum was their 2nd full length cd, and does it pack a punch. They also decided to make a cover of Venom's Black Metal, which fits really well on this album. All 9 tracks are excellent in their own way, plus the bonus add on tracks from the Inferior Devoties EP are superior and Pleasure Of Molestation EP are good to hear what Hypocrisy sounded like in their starting days as a band. I have very high respect for this unique band from Sweden. If you like your death metal tight, hard and full blast distortion with both growls and shrieks from the one vocalist, then Osculum Obscenum is perfect for you as it is for me. This is very different to their later releases, but this is 100% brutal death, not to say their new stuff is no good, I just like this more. The Forth Dimension is not as brutal, but more emotional, then we have Abducted which is moving towards the subject of aliens (which is a ground-breaking idea for death metal plus the vocals change, as does the vocalist). But to put it simply if you buy anything by HYPOCRISY chances are you'll love it and write a 5 star review as I have. Also, what an excellent title for an album and the cover art is worth the purchase alone. This was my first Hypocrisy cd, but it wasn't my last. And with a cover of Slayer's Black Magic in this superior death metal style, this is must grab. I cannot recommend this enough, it has to be heard to be to be praised.



"Black Metal...lay down your soul to the God's Rock 'n' Roll !"