Obscurae (mem. Hour of 13) "Walk[s] The Path Of Sorrows" (Early Album Stream)

It’s snowing out. Sort of. Rather, it had snowed before I woke up, which then turned into rain, turning the streets of Chicago into a grey, slushy misery. Winter is coming, but not quite, and so we are left in this gross, wet flux. I see this stasis in the cover art for Obscurae‘s upcoming album To Walk The Path Of Sorrows.

The brainchild of Hour of 13’s Chad Davis, Obscurae marks a deepening in this artist’s return to the black metal world, which was initially marked by his project Anu’s (which is also worth looking into) revitalization early last year. Davis’s take on black metal through the Obscurae lens is quite different from Anu’s minimal riffing. Rather, Obscurae is immense, raw, and atmospheric, and carries a deep misery in its keyboard-flecked walls of sound. Not unlike a certain Swiss artist, Davis’s latest attempt captures a landscape instead of a story and is picturesque rather than dynamic. And it is miserable — miserable in that special sort of “black metal sorrow” sort of way which makes it all the more compelling. As I look outside my window into the pre-Winter as To Walk The Path Of Sorrows plays in the background, I am oddly at peace. Listen to the album in full below.

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To Walk The Path Of Sorrows releases November 27th on American Decline Records.

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