"...As if Wagner, Brahms or even Stravinskij decided in the otherworld that these wimpy rock/metal kids have had it too easy and possessed various souls to spend hundreds of nights writing progressive Romantic/Faustian death metal partitures..." - Devamitra, Deathmetal.org
Into Oblivion was formed in 2007, after a few years of attempts by guitarist, composer and founding member, Roman, to form a musical project. The initial impulse was to revive the vital
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"...As if Wagner, Brahms or even Stravinskij decided in the otherworld that these wimpy rock/metal kids have had it too easy and possessed various souls to spend hundreds of nights writing progressive Romantic/Faustian death metal partitures..." - Devamitra, Deathmetal.org
Into Oblivion was formed in 2007, after a few years of attempts by guitarist, composer and founding member, Roman, to form a musical project. The initial impulse was to revive the vital, massive, imposing, and warlike spirit at the heart of all true metal by taking primary inspiration from the works of 80s death/black/speed metal bands, before genre convention became the norm in metal. To this end , bassist Brandon Keddy, vocalist Andre Ferreira, and drummer Jacob Jezovit (all at the time hardcore punk enthusiasts) were recruited. Starting off with high energy crust/hardcore covers by bands like Discharge and Amebix, adding to this simplistic but ripping Slayer-like material, Into Oblivion began.
Overtime, other more complex and modern influences crept in, such as Demilich, Morbid Angel, Averse Sefira, Immolation, and Graveland, as well as an increasing interest in Romantic classical composers such as Anton Bruckner, Richard Wagner, Franz Schubert, and of course Beethoven. Additionally, long time influences from 70s progressive rock and electronic/ambient music began to manifest. This transitional, formative state, is where Into Oblivion recorded their independently released debut album in 2008, after a number of rehearsal tapes and one demo. Notable to one who had heard the band from inception would be a growing interest in black metal melodicism and more complex song structure, while still maintaining the raging chaos of the earlier works. Lyrics revealed an anarchistic bent of dissatisfaction with the modern world, contempt for the manipulated and hatred of the manipulators, and celebration of society’s destruction and all true strength and power. The album was youthful, exuberant, passionate, but perhaps premature, riddled with mistakes, and poorly produced.
Come 2009, Into Oblivion had begun writing 20 minute compositions, entirely unintentionally, and was being referred to constantly as a black metal band. Live performances revealed 40 minute sets often composing of 3 or 4 songs at most, while the band was surprisingly gathering a following with this unique and uncharacteristic sound. Around this time, friend of Roman’s and Toronto scene veteran Kaveh Afshar (of Necrodios and Valkyrie’s Cry fame) took a growing interest in the bands’ music, noting how the work would sound fuller with a second guitar. Only a few months later, he himself was offered to join the band as second guitarist. With this came the ability to flesh out compositions harmonically, which greatly accentuated the empowering melodic flow that was developing in the sound at the time. Older tracks took on a much more solid and fierce presence live as well.
Finally, after a year of working on the material, the work Creation of a Monolith was recorded. It stands a work in six movements, with two instrumental pieces framing four testaments to inner overcoming and thirst for cosmic knowledge in an amoral non-dualism. More than ever before, a stormy Wagnerian/Brucknerian presence is manifested, synthesized in seamless perfection with metal’s parallels: Celtic Frost, At The Gates, Averse Sefira, Immortal, Morbid Angel, Graveland, Summoning, and Burzum. May its name be true.
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…shrink me down again