Review Summary: I hope this is Part I.
I joined this God-forsaken website a few weeks after
Epitaphs was released, back in 2016. Coming from an intense and lingering romance with Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas'
Mariner, Obscure Sphinx's third long play was the right wave to ride, out of my crush with
Mariner, and right into newly expanded horizons. And then, they vanished.
Sure, we had the
Thaumaturgy live albums some years ago to confirm they still existed but apart from that, nothing signified a new release from the band. Eight years later and here we are, finally talking about the long-awaited new material from Poland's definitive post-metal titans, just a few days into 2025. Don't expect revolutionary changes with this new release;
Emovere sounds like Obscure Sphinx through and through. Zofia "Wielebna" Fraś still commands the show with masterful melodies and heart-ripping screaming and the rest of the band still exudes the unsurmountable power of instruments with too many strings tuned way too low and percussive pounding that feels like having your head between the pissed off hammer of a buffed dwarf blacksmith and his anvil.
On the other hand, three tracks is all we got after eight years, unfortunately, but three amazing tracks nonetheless. You may have heard "Scarcity Hunter" already, a tremendous opener that showcases Zofia's landmark vocals right from the very start while the song twists and turns in very interesting ways. The second song, "As I Stood Upon The Shore" is the shortest of the three but also the one that includes the most surprises with some unexpected upbeat sections. "Nethergrove", as you can imagine, is an absolute behemoth and would justify the price of admission all by itself. The production of
Emovere is phenomenal, recorded by the band's drummer Mateusz "Werbel" Badacz, and engineered by Sebastian Has, who has worked with bands like Behemoth and Nightshade among others, and who had also worked with the band on
Epitaphs back in 2016.
Honestly, with this new record, Obscure Sphinx faced the challenging task of convincing me that I still care about post-metal in 2025. It's been years since the genre stroke a chord with me. I'm confident that the beast still lurks in its lair and whoever wants to find it and is willing to getting decimated by gigantic riffage and life affirming drum beats still can do it at leisure, but I feel like in recent years post-metal has taken a few modest steps back and its prominent figures have become quieter. I wish
Emovere would prove me wrong, but it feels like a shy taste of the waters compared to the maelstrom of ideas that
Void Mother or
Epitaphs were. Perhaps this is a transition to something else, a chrysalis of sorts mutating into a fully formed creature later this year with more unreleased material, who knows, but for now we can only revel in what we got, which is by no means lacking in excellent execution and everything that made you fall in love with this band in the first place. You won't be disappointed.
