Offering up four tracks, Embrace The Obsession is an EP from Spanish outfit Horripilant (quite literally: horrifying). Clad in horror-comic artwork and, for some reason, with the track-listing showing up in Japanese on my PC, Embrace The Obsession is a relentlessly old-school EP for those who yearn for the days when Obituary’s output came on bootleg cassette and, as such, it has a certain necrotic charm.
Kicking off with Falsified Spirits, a churning, five-minute death metal assault with overlapping vocals, Kerry-King-style solos and bowel-rupturing bass, it’s strangely engaging, perhaps because it’s so obviously a labour of (dark) love for the three miscreants involved. Proficient musicians all, despite the dry recording style, the music comes across well, and there’s some sweet bass work to be found amidst the razor-sharp riffing and deathly grunts. The band cast a nod to early Sepultura (think Bestial Devastation) on At Their Own Voracity. Slightly ragged (especially in the second half), it’s best characterised by the unholy vocals, which emerge as a dry rasp laden with spite. Next up, the satanic gallop of Pulsions bridges the divide between Slowly We Rot and Hell Awaits before the title track sees the EP to a satisfyingly dirge-laden close. Once again casting a nod in the direction of the genre greats, Horripilant have both the passion and the prowess to pull it off, and I would not hesitate in grabbing hold of an album, should the band put out a full-length down the line.
With its gloriously old-school cover art and its rear cover declaration of “EVIL DEATH METAL”, it is pretty clear where Horripilant’s allegiances lie. The resultant EP is really good, capturing the dry, pre-tech-scrubbed spirit of death metal in all its unholy glory. The tracks are solid and, while they offer nothing particularly new to the death metal inferno, they keep the flame alive, drawing on a variety of classic influences from Deicide and early Sepultura to Obituary, and doing them full justice in the process. An enjoyable offering from a band who clearly love their craft, Embrace The Obsession is well worth checking out. 8/10
