Release Date: July 11th 2025. Record Label: Olde Magick Records. Formats: Cassette/CD/DD/Vinyl
Obsidian Eye - Tracklisting
1.Engorge Behemoth 07:56
2.Venatic Rite 07:54
3.Pestiferous 06:54
4.Obsidian Eye 08:10
5.Revenants 08:33
6.Beset 07:51
Members
Dave Jones - Guitar and Vocals
Zach Hatsis - Drums
Josh Dupree - Bass
Matt Miller - Guitar
Review
Psych Sludge/Stoner Metallers Hibernaut return with their sophomore album Obsidian Eye which is a concept album of sorts with the band explaining about the whole concept below:
“Obsidian Eye tells a harrowing tale of infection, resurrection, and the unknowable will of an alien intelligence. Set in a pre-industrial world teetering on the edge of understanding, the album explores the question: Who decides when to die?”
Hibernate constructs a decaying style of Progressive Metal to build their creative landscape upon with moments of Psych, Sludge, Doom and Stoner Metal roaming free to play an unforgiving style of music. The sound is quite apocalyptic with flashes of fast paced Progressive Sludge grooves that hide a haunting Post-Doom and Post-Metal quality. Hibernaut channels the likes of Neurosis, GOJIRA, Mastodon, Black Sabbath, YOB and Cult Of Luna through this sordid and nightmarish world that has a downbeat attitude especially with the lyrics written for the album.
The vocals from Dave Jones are perfectly pitched for an album about the END OF THE WORLD with a despairing and NO FUCKS GIVEN attitude hidden behind his frontman persona. The progressive melodies and harsh Post-Metal environments lead into some intense musical tempos and instrumental passages with a sudden shift to different types of METAL such as Groove, Thrash and Industrial can be heard especially within the highly destructive tracks of Engorge Behemoth and Venatic Rice.
HIbernaut operate with a fast and loose approach that gives the record a more honest vibe where the music becomes more destructive and aggressively violent as a result but still holding a quite an earnest melodic quality. The FUZZED up sounds lend a helping hand of keeping things quite grounded when the story of the album becomes slightly CHAOTIC and downright CINEMATIC on tracks such as Pestiferous, Obsidian Eye and Revenants. The songs are quite long with Hibernaut playing through a TON of different genres but everything is played with great originality and the songs are constructed superbly well to hold the listeners attention throughout.
This is the type of album that the RELAPSE RECORDS crowd would have loved around fifteen to twenty years ago when they were the go to Sludge/Stoner Metal label to be signed to back in the day. So if you miss those good old days when Relapse Records had High On Fire, Mastodon, Baroness, Black Tusk and Neurosis signed to their label then Obsidian Eye is perhaps the closest record you’ll hear to capture that legendary era of music.
Obsidian Eye is played at such a fast and breakneck speed that the forty nine minute run-time just flies by with Hibernaut playing huge classic riffs over, over and over again. The album can be quite unforgiving and bleak with its whole APOCALYPTIC theme holding everything together but that only adds to the overall effect of the musical journey that Hibernaut takes you upon.
Hibernaut have released another exciting and unmissable record with Obsidian Eye with superb production values to match. Add this one to your collection and embrace the perfect Sludge/Stoner Metal soundtrack to the end of the world.
Words by Steve Howe
Obsidian Eye is available to buy on Cassette, Digital, CD and Vinyl
Links
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