Ne Obliviscaris

Live at The Whisky A Go Go

West Hollywood, CA

November 2nd, 2017

Review and photos by Travis Baumann

Ne Obliviscaris are a progressive metal band hailing from Melbourne, Australia that incorporates a fluid mixture of styles ranging from extreme styles such as death and black metal, to melodic, thrash, avant guard, gothic, and even some folk influences.

Complicated musical structures, epic song lengths, meandering and emotional stories are all punctuated with the dual vocalists juxtaposing harsh growled delivery with melodic clean verse. Added to this already dense aural assault is an extra layer with soaring violin pieces.

Formed in 2003, they just saw their third full length release with the album "Urn". Challenging standard musical practices, the release features immense songs, that transition through stages, creating their own arcs internally as well as lending to the greater story of the album as a whole.

The band consists of founding member and extreme vocalist, Xenoyr along with clean vocalist and violin player Tim Charles. Joining them are Matt Klavins and Benjamin Baret on guitars, Daniel Presland on drums, and Marino Garattoni on bass guitar.

As the epic intro music played the band took the stage. They started off the set with "Libera (Part I): Satrnine Spheres" which opens their latest album. Just shy of ten minutes, this song exemplifies their musical style and abilities as well as their penchant for writing mammoth songs that take you on a spiraling journey.

They moved to their debut album, "Portal of I" for "And Plague Flowers the Kaleidoscope" for their second song. This song clocks in at nearly twelve minutes so with just the first two songs they had already played nearly a half hour.

Reaching back to the "Urn" release they played "Intra Venus", one of their shorter songs being only around seven minutes but just as powerful as it incorporates all of their various styles combined into one song.

Taking a song from their sophomore release, "Citadel" they played "Painters of the Tempest (Part II): Triptich Lux". As the song titles reveal, their lyrical base is deep and contemplative, looking at the esoteric and intellectual mysteries of existence as well as this mortal span.

"Forget Not" was taken from the debut album and then they set into the two part title tracks from "Urn" with "Part I: And Within the Void We Are Breathless" and "Part II: As Embers Dance In Our Eyes" to close out the main set.

After a short break and cheering from the rapt audience, they returned for the encore of "Devour Me, Colossus (Part I): Blackholes from the "Citadel" release to finish off the night.

It was a great show, filled with exemplary musicianship and an amazing pair of vocal performances that really work so well together. The combination of Xenoyr's dark and moody voice with Tim's soothing melodies really make for a unique experience. I highly recommend checking these guys out as they will appeal to fans of numerous sub-genres but stand out in their own right as well.

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