Vaikutteeni albumeina: Steffen Kummerer (Obscura)

Saksalainen progressiivista death metalia soittava Obscura julkaisee uuden ”Akroasis”-albuminsa 5. helmikuuta Relapse Recordsin kautta. Kaaoszine tavoitti albumin julkaisun lähestyessä sähköpostin välityksellä yhtyeen kitaristi-vokalisti Steffen Kummererin, joka listasi meille viisi albumia, jotka ovat muovanneet hänestä sellaisen muusikon, kuin hän tänä päivänä on. Steffen alusti omia valintojaan seuraavasti:

”All of these records had their share to make me the musician I am today. They influenced lyrics, music and to start releasing albums 14 years ago. Aside those mentioned five bands and albums, there is an endless list of references relating to past and present bands of different genres, but to sum it up – the above five records are the quintessence to me.”

1. Death – Human:

”Chuck Schuldiner and Death has been the reason I picked up the guitar and started playing death metal in the end. Especially “Human” which merged the classic early 90’s death metal with a certain laid back feeling through the whole record inspired me up to this date. In the end timeless music, tight musicianship and so much groove, out of the box rhythms and last but not least Steve DiGiorgio’s fretless bass adding another musical level to the overall brilliant sound.”

2. Cynic – Focus:

”With Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert playing in Death at the time a close friend introduced me to Cynic and their record “Focus” which opened my eyes back then. Melting various musical influences into this album was way ahead of time and let the band break up a few years after its release. The approach adding fusion with death metal, including almost robotic sounding vocals with a vocoder and the progressive structures let this record shine through hundreds of albums that have been released within the last 25 years.”

3. Emperor – Prometheus:

”Coming from Norway, Emperor made up their way from a respected underground act to reach their musical height with “Prometheus”, a unique record that sounds like nothing else. Full choirs, string arrangements, Ishahn’s extreme vocals and songs beyond everything that was heard up till then made this record a hate it or love it album for fans and press. Listening to this record, you can’t tell this band started somewhere in the woods making pictures with corpsepaint. For me the best album this band released up to this day.”

4. Dissection – The Somberlain:

”Jon Nödtveidt and Dissection introduced me back in the days to classic heavy metal twin guitars combined with black and death metal. Especially their debut album “The Somberlain” came out of nowhere and crushed all boundaries of black and death metal. At a later point the band went into another musical direction and shared their vision of anticosmic satanism which was pretty inspiring as a writer, although I have a pretty different view than Jon had. “The Somberlain” has so much energy, a one of its own sound and one of the best mixes of Dan Swano he made in the 90´s.”

5. At the Gates – Terminal Spirit Disease:

”Usually, when it comes to At the Gates ,everyone names “Slaughter of the Soul”. In my opinion “Terminal Spirit Disease” contains the better riffs, a killer production and the best performance of Tompa on a record. Swedish melancholy, old fashioned strings, killer harmony work, a tight rhythm section and the vocals stand out and let this record rotate in my player at least once a week. Atheist have been a strong influence to their riffing and rhythm At the Gates once mentioned – and here you have a link between the tech and prog death metal bands from the early 90ies to Scandinavian Metal years later.”

Steffen Kummererin oman yhtyeen Obscuran tulevan ”Akroasis”-nimisen albumin nimikkokappaleen voit kuunnella puolestaan lopuksi tästä: