Ne Obliviscaris blends to perfection beauty and bleakness, with relentless black metal screeches pairing perfectly with elegant violin breaks.
This confident debut by Ne Obliviscaris offers up an onslaught of progressive black metal reminiscent of what would happen if you took Sham Mirrors-era Arcturus, strapped a rocket to it, and fired it at the sun. Mostly eschewing the black metal tradition of ominous stage names and facepaint, this Australian crew offer up a vision of cosmic megalomania, Tim Charles and Xenolyr sharing the vocals in which they rant about goodness-knows-what whilst the band play up a storm…

Without a doubt Ne Obliviscaris are one of the international metal scene's most exciting new bands. Their epic, stirring arrangements are orchestral in feel; flowing effortlessly between cathartic peaks of the most explosive extremity to subtle moments of fragile beauty. With their album 'Citadel', the wildly progressive Australian band will undoubtedly take their place in the vanguard of the genre's forerunners.

The Aussie extreme/progressive metal outfit's third full-length effort, Urn, continues in the vein of Ne Obliviscaris' 2014 breakout LP Citadel, delivering a lethal blend of blastbeats and soaring melodies that invoke Dimmu Borgir by way of Dream Theater. Anchored by Tim Charles' meticulous violin work and clarion clean vocals - co-founder Xenoyr handles all of the larynx-melting bellows - the six-track set is split into a pair of two-part epics and a couple of impressive standalones. "Urn" is the most brutal of the two narrative-driven bookends, with drummer Daniel Presland setting a relentless pace that's matched in both might and melody by guitarists Matt Klavins and Benjamin Baret. The atmosphere-driven "Eyrie" firmly ensconced in the middle of the 45-minute set provides a bit of sonic refuge - at least until around the five-minute mark…

"Exul" personifies Ne Obliviscaris’ distinctive, boundary-pushing ethos. The band’s trademark blend of emotion and beauty is as towering as ever, if not even more compelling, particularly how the haunting violin lines carefully weave their way around the riffs. The duality of Charles’ clean vocals and Xenoyr’s growls remains the narrative anchor, elevating songs that emanate sophistication and are a masterclass in composition.