Considering I’ve been into the scene since the early 80s and am a huge fan of late 80s-early 90s death metal, it’s unusual for me to come across a band I have little or no exposure to. The only material of Incubus (now known as Opprobrium, to avoid confusion and legal conflicts with an American pop band of the same name) was on an old Nuclear Blast compilation CD released a few years back. To be honest, the band, and their new album, surprised me. Opprobrium are a pure death metal quartet with an obvious 80s death-thrash influence, combining catchy riffing, intricate soloing and aggressive vocals. The best way to describe the guitar playing would be to take riffing from early Death, Sepultura, Morbid Angel and Obituary and meld them together, creating a unique sound that’s strangely familiar. The drumming is rather simplistic in comparison to the guitar playing, with Moyses relying mostly on playing the same beat throughout the majority of a song with little variation, yet, strangely enough, it seems to fit the music perfectly. The vocals are accented and gruffly mid-pitched sort of like if Max Cavelera were to try singing like Chuck Schuldiner. The production is pretty strong, yet still falls a bit short, leaving the music sounding a bit flat at times. Songs like "Digitrap", "Dark Entanglement" and "Moments Of Despair" will easily get the average death metal fan’s head banging, however, I find after getting midway through the CD I tend to get impatient and start skipping through four or five tracks before I find something more interesting. Fans of the 80s death-thrash attack will most likely bow down in worship of Opprobrium, the rest will at least find a few moments of interest. While far from being a new band to the scene, they are a new band to me, and I’m still rather pleased with my discovery.

Written By: Teufel