Ephemerality — Obsessed With Homicide Review

Deceptive Calm Before the Rot

The descent begins with Festering Away, a deceptive opening hymn that greets the listener with clean acoustic guitars before the rot fully sets in. What follows is a relentless journey through ten decaying hymns, compressed into a lean, suffocating thirty-two-minute runtime.

Melody Under the Scalpel

Obsessed With Homicide is neither a casual stroll nor a sanctuary for the faint of heart. Ephemerality delivers melodic yet brutal death metal, weaving a tapestry of stylistic affinities that echo the technicality of Intestine Baalism, the surgical rot of Carcass, and the blackened elegance of Dissection. 

The sound is defined by sharp, slicing melodic lines that cut through classic death metal riffing like a scalpel. There is a palpable fixation on morbidity and psychological decay—a theme reinforced by the tightly structured, concise nature of the hymns, ensuring that the listener is never allowed to escape the claustrophobicweight of the subject.

Devilmanship of Singular Vision

The Devilmanship of Ephemerality is a hermetic achievement, driven entirely by the singular vision of Negoiță Ștefan. A sense of tortured hostility radiates from the composition and arrangements, anchored by a guitar performance that serves as the project’s primary character. The tone is defined by high-gain, mid-scooped distortion that remains sharp and articulate, even during the most frantic tremolo-picked passages. 

While the rhythm guitars feel meticulously double-tracked for density, it is the harmonised lines—appearing at critical junctures—that provide a melodic contour reminiscent of Dissection, bridging the gap between clinical brutality and blackened elegance. 

The guitar work on Obsessed With Homicide is defined by its refusal to wander. Palm-muted chugging appears only as connective tissue between movements, never as the focal point. Instead, the riffs are short, violent, and tightly structured—executing their intent with zero atmospheric padding.

The Mechanical Backbone

Beneath this high-gain assault, the bass guitar acts as the structural glue. Though often hidden from the casual ear, it serves as the project’s foundation stone. It follows the guitar lines with a mirroring precision, ensuring that the composition remains a solid, crushing entity. It is the silent architect; you don’t always notice it, but the entire album would collapse into noise without its anchoring presence.

The percussion reinforces the album’s surgical aesthetic through heavy sampling and sharp, metallic snares. Negoiță Ștefan ensures the drums act as a high-velocity pulse rather than just a rhythmic backdrop, with calculated intent. Utilising tight, modern drum samples, the sound is defined by sharp, slightly metallic snares and fast, click-heavy kicks designed to pierce through the high-gain guitar density.

The cymbals and toms are used with utilitarian restraint, appearing only to accent transitions or provide short, functional fills. While blast beats are frequent, they are balanced by double-kick runs that underpin the mid-tempo sections. 

The drums do not compete for dominance, but instead provide a relentless, surgical backbone that reinforces the album’s homicidal momentum.