From Sweden comes Oblivion with Renewal as their debut release. The band consists of guitarist Jimmie Isacsson, bassist Johan Isacsson, drummer Haakon Sjoequist and singer Samuel Emtlind. On Renewal they are assisted by former Oblivion guitarist Bjoern Isaksson, singer Ulf Blomberg and Narnia keyboardist Martin Claesson who adds the atmospheric touches to the album. It's the use of keyboards that sometimes gives the songs a dark metal feel while the vocals are somewhere in between a death growl and a black metal hiss (like in Renewal Of Our Minds). Yet Oblivion is not a black metal band. They describe themselves as metalcore but the average metalcore fan will be disappointed as this band is way too metal. According to the credits their influences come from Living Sacrifice and Meshuggah. A song like I.D.W. does have things in common with Living Sacrifice but Oblivion is not nearly as good. The band covered the LS song Reject. If you, after reading this review, are even slightly interested in this band, I encourage you to go to the MP3.com page of their record company. There you can download all songs but Reject. How nice! With a bit more dedication to sound tight and with a better production these tracks could be much more enjoyable. Not bad though.
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