✦✦✦✧ This is more like it! The album feels a bit more selective in its excesses than its predecessor Diluvium, which only serves to make the riffs and leads all the more special and memorable. It’s great to hear guitarist Christian Münzner’s energy and skill in this, his return to the band, as it is for bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling as well.

✦✦✧✧ Obscura have teetered over into full-blown Cynic mode. Gone is the hitherto casual-at-best relationship the band had with song structure. Instead, “Diluvium” is an all-you-can-eat riff salad bar, with not much deference given to pacing or flow. The band are great at what they do, but this is one trying listen.

✦✦✦✦ This is a hard-hitting technodeath triumph, and sets a high bar for any other progressive metal in 2016. Unlike recent examples from other technodeath staples, this album does a better job in offering a (relatively) diverse musical palette, at times evoking Death, BTBAM, The Faceless, and Gorguts. Every song feels substantial without being overlong (even the 15-minute closer “Weltseele”).