Obake – Obake

In Japanese folklore, an obake can either be a ghost or a shapeshifter, but no matter what definition you choose to adopt it’s an apt moniker for this contorted chimera. Opening with a car-crushing weight of sheer doomy monstrousness, bassist Massimo Pupillo (of Zu infamy) delivers groove after groove of rumbling, insidious horror while Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari shifts his voice from infernal operatics to slithering growls with each off-kilter progression.

But then they go and flick the rug from under the feet, suddenly taking the heaviness to new depths with brain-scraping atmospherics that slowly and irretrievably draw you into a hellishly unpredictable dimension. After that, all bets are off. The doom returns but with a new, twisted manifesto, propelled by deranged howls, guitar passages that jerk to and fro with beautiful abandon and jilted flutterings from Balazas Pandi’s kit. It’s not a traditional dish by any means, but by God is it exquisite.