INTERVIEW: Steffen Kummerer – Obscura

Mixing prog and extreme technicality with crushing death metal, German heavyweights OBSCURA were in the vanguard of technical death metal’s charge to prominence. With four full length LPs under their belt, and a fifth on the way, the band, led by frontman Steffen Kummerer, have risen to the top tier of the sub-genre. Diluvium, which is due to drop on Friday, is the band’s fourth record through Relapse Records. Kummerer was gracious enough to chat with Distorted Sound, and shed some light on the concept that has driven the last four records, what the future holds for OBSCURA, the growth of technical death metal as a sub-genre and what’s in store for his blackened melodic death metal side project Thulcandra.

Hey Steffen, it’s a pleasure to finally speak with you. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us today. How are things in the OBSCURA camp at the moment in the build up to Diluvium’s release?

Steffen: We are in the middle of a major PR campaign to promote our fifth record and prepare our live set for all upcoming tours, festivals and one-off shows that are book through the next months. Things are quite well and we are quite overwhelmed by the positive feedback from underground metal magazines as well as major magazines alike.

Diluvium is the last in the four-record cycle that began with Cosmogenesis. Did you have a plan for the full cycle when you began writing Cosmogenesis, or was it a continually evolving idea right up to finishing Diluvium?

Steffen: It was both alike. While the path was quite clear to write four records that are being considered as a four-album-cycle, including the framework of connecting ideas such as colours, titles and a rough outline of each record, we had enough freedom to work with ideas that just came by or evolved through the years of writing this cycle. The path was more or less in sight, but how you reach your aim in the final meters was pretty much open.

Can you walk us through the lyrical concepts you wanted to explore throughout the Cosmogenesis/Omnivium/Akróasis/Diluvium cycle, and how the four are linked?

Steffen: The four records are linked within the four colours red-blue, green-yellow, the titles Omni-vium-Dilu-vium, Cosmogene-sis-Akroa-sis and build up a cycle of birth, evolution, consciousness and death. All in all, the four records represent a life-cycle. All lyrics are based on three different topics; philosophy, astrophysics and religion at the same time while being in either a meta or macro point of view. Musically, the albums are linked within melody lines or themes. For example, Emergent Evolution is linked to Incarnated, The Conjuration to Velocity and The Seventh Aeon to Orbital Elements. Also, within the lyrics a few themes I started with during the first three records are finished through Diluvium. Sermon of the Seven Suns was taken by The Seventh Aeon for example. If you sit down and read clearly through the four albums, there is much more to find and achieve.

Do you have any plans for what will come next for OBSCURA, once the touring for Diluvium is finished?

Steffen: Yes, I have a row of rough ideas what to come next and by the end of this year I start writing material for both music and lyrics alike. Right now, we are looking into releasing Diluvium and presenting the four records properly within a live situation for the upcoming two years. Also, a proper live album or more live records would be an option to underline this mammoth work of around 10 years we just finished.

The symphonic elements on Ethereal Skies really add a dynamic feeling to the song – was there a reason you chose to only use orchestration on that one song, rather than include it throughout the bulk of the album? Can fans expect to hear more symphonic elements in future OBSCURA releases?

Steffen: We had the intention of working with a grand part of orchestrations throughout Diluvium, but both the budget to produce a record of this calibre wasn’t present while we figured the bigger part of our material was not ideal for an orchestra. Personally, I have ideas to work on a record with a more symphonic direction, but it would sound like modern world music, not a cheesy power metal sound, if I would write material in that direction it would rather follow Igor Strawinsky or Paul Hindemith.

Technical/progressive death metal has grown to become one of the most popular sub-genres of death metal in recent years. Where do you see the genre progressing from here?

Steffen: With many young and ambitious bands, the genre seems healthy and progressing with each year. Technical or progressive death metal grows globally and occasionally, I find new and interesting bands with their very own interpretation of this kind of music. It is great to see that bands such as VEKTOR, PERSEFONE or EXIST recently got the attention they deserve – with all their different sounds, they are somehow still connected with the scene and music. As long as there are bands willing to write their own music with their own identity and keep pushing creative boundaries instead of just copying, I am sure there will evolve a few more generations of interesting groups within this genre.

OBSCURA are inarguably one of the biggest names in the tech/prog death genre. Do you feel your ability to blend extreme musical technicality with the basic fundamentals of song-writing has played a role in this?

Steffen: Aside from the complex and technical music, OBSCURA always worked with certain hooklines that keep the songs interesting and easy to digest in a way. A strong melody or chorus keeps the story each song tells interesting for everyone who is not listening to a song just to analysis which chord progression was used or how fast a certain part was played. Writing music is also a piece out of gut-feeling, and I am still a fan of the musical style and understand both sides, the live situation as fan but also the idea to push forward the abilities to what is possible or impossible on an instrument. I guess the long lasting work over 16 years, worldwide touring, perseverance when it was necessary and the positive reactions of our fans played an equal role that OBSCURA got the status we have these days.

Do you try to keep an ear out for up-and-coming tech/prog death bands? If so, are there any you particularly enjoy, and feel deserve more recognition?

Steffen: Yes, as I mentioned I am still a huge fan. I visit local shows as well as big productions in Munich and I keep my eyes out constantly for new groups. With OBSCURA we are in the position to choose the bands we are touring with and always try to give one or two bands the chance to present their material and show to a bigger audience. We did that with EXIVIOUS, RIVERS OF NIHIL, BEYOND CREATION and a row of other bands in the past and just recently we invited INFERI and EXIST to our North American Tour. Both bands are great, and I recommend people to listen to their material.

OBSCURA is a band that has a myriad of influences in its sound, both within and without metal – though you are, at the core, a death metal band. What bands/artists do you continually find yourself returning to, both for inspiration and for personal enjoyment?

Steffen: Basically it blends the diversity of OBSCURA‘s sound. I change the albums I listen to constantly with either new bands or classics of different genres I just started to listen to. Right now I listen to 70s instrumental music such as CAMEL or MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA, great produced rock and metal like GHOST and MASTODON or the new albums of AT THE GATES, NECROPHOBIC, FRAGMENTS OF UNBECOMING and MEGADETH. Metal classics I listen to every once in a while are SLAYER‘s God Hates us All, EMPEROR, DISSECTION, DEATH, MORBID ANGEL or BLOODBATH.

It’s early days in the Diluvium album cycle – we know you have a tour booked for the United States, alongside BEYOND CREATION, ARCHSPIRE, INFERI and EXIST, but are there any other tour plans in the works?

Steffen: We are booking the whole year 2019 and 2020 right now and will return to Europe for an extensive and long trip, Japan, Australia and Central and South America are scheduled. The feedback for the record and the mentioned lineup with BEYOND CREATION, ARCHSPIRE, INFERI and EXIST seems overwhelming positive and we can’t wait to hit the road with the new material.

The UK has seen a few OBSCURA shows at festivals, or one date on a European tour, but can we expect a full tour on our shores as part of the Diluvium touring cycle?

Steffen: OBSCURA never had the opportunity to play a full UK tour, that is correct. Perhaps we should consider touring more in the UK than just visiting London, Bristol and Manchester and schedule a full tour for Diluvium – depending on the scene and if you want to see a Diluvium UK tour.

Are there any tracks from Diluvium you are particularly excited to play live?

Steffen: Yes, I guess The Seventh Aeon, Mortification of the Vulgar Sun, An Epilogue to Infinity and Emergent Evolution are going to turn out as live classics in the near future. On the other hand you never know how a song might work or turn the crowd into sleep. In the past a few more experimental songs turned out to get praised every night wile others we expected to turn out well where deleted from the live set within a few shows. Gambling, I would say.

Due to the extreme level of musicianship required to perform OBSCURA’s music, how do you both play the music and put on a memorable, exciting show for fans?

Steffen: We work pretty hard on being a tight and interesting live band. No one wants to see a perfect playing band that is just looking on their instruments while moving not even one inch left or right through one hour of a set. Producing a real live show is my aim and you might be surprised what a death metal band can do. Come to the shows and get a clue.

Finishing up on a question not entirely related to OBSCURA. Do you have any plans in store for a new THULCANDRA record?

Steffen: Yes, we are about to finish songwriting for our fourth record and are looking forward to entering the studio by the end of this year. THULCANDRA is more active than ever and the band got booked to headline a row of festivals and just finished a few tours supporting our latest release Ascension Lost within live shows. The vibes are very good, and we meet regularly to rehearse and work on new material.

Thank you so much for your time today Steffen. Before you go, do you have any parting messages for our readers?

Steffen: Thank you for the nice interview and see you very soon!

Diluvium is set for release on July 13th via Relapse Records.

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