Wow. Bath's Obisidian, released earlier this year, kind of took me by surprise when I first started listening to it about a week back. Every song is so textured and well-arranged, and surprisingly, the entire album manages to stay catchy and pleasing almost all the way through. It's the kind of music that you nod your head to and it's easy to let your mind drift when Obsidian starts up (I mean, come on; "Miasma Sky" even samples rain sounds). This is the kind of music that accompanies long, sentimental car ride montages in movies, I thought. But that was before I started to really listen to what lead singer Will Wiesenfeld was saying.
"Birth was like a fat black tongue, dripping tar and dung and dye slowly into my shivering eyes," sings Wiesenfeld-- ever so sweetly-- in the very first moments of Obsidian. "It was my parting lie and I'd wrapped it in all the bows. Lodged in the rectal wall of agony, Hell is our only home," he proclaims repeatedly on "No Past Lives." Okay, so this is definitely an Anticon artist. Sometimes, Wiesenfeld's lyrics are just flat-out... weird, and the way that these really abrasive lyrics are buried underneath layer upon layer of gorgeous sound is fantastic. It's also kind of disturbing, but not in a sense that makes the music any less enjoyable. Normally, this kind of lyricism runs the risk of sounding gimmicky, but in the case of Obsidian, it feels almost necessary. Baths took a risk with this album, and I think it paid off.
-Kane
PS. If you do happen to listen to this album, make sure you do it with headphones or a nice set of speakers at least once. There's a lot going on.
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