Review: Obsidian Tide – Pillars of Creation

Style: progressive metal, death metal, folk (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, King Crimson, Orphaned Land, Tool
Review by: Sam
Country: Israel
Release date: 29 August, 2019

NOTE: This album was originally included in the August 2019 issue of The Progressive Subway

Not many of you know this, but Israel has a really good underground prog metal scene. On the more well-known side you have Orphaned Land, Subterranean Masquerade and Distorted Harmony, but beneath that there’s a good plethora of very good bands. Among others you have Stormy Atmosphere, Orpheus Blade, Scardust and my runner-up album of the year 2018 makers Venus in Fear. So when I saw there was this band from Israel among the list, my interest piqued and I immediately screamed at Jonah: “MIIIIIIINNNNNNNNEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!” 

My first impression of this album told me two things: observation one is that these guys have a real talent for songwriting, and observation two is that they really like Opeth, a lot. Now I absolutely adore bands that channel Opeth in their own sound (see: Hands of Despair, Disillusion), but if a band tends to get more into copying territory I tend to get Disillusioned (pun intended). The Piah Mater flashbacks were strong with my first listen. However, as I kept coming back to the album, I began to notice it’s not just worshipping of the Swedes. Instead of going full Bad Salad to their Dream Theater, these guys rather go for the Circus Maximus approach. So yes, it has a worship element, but it’s definitely it’s own thing.

But now enough about Opeth, we’re talking about Obsidian Tide here. The album opens with a lovely Middle Eastern-folk tinged acoustic melody that immediately immerses you as a listener. Then the vocals come in and BAM you’re sold. Oz Avneya has an absolutely lovely singing voice. It’s soothing like a campfire song, yet it has a very subdued strength about it. These oriental elements and the singing remain a high-point about the album in general. The percussion transitioning the opening track into Seven for example is just brilliant if you ask me. After this they go into the growly bits supported by some excellent riffage. The growls are a lot weaker than the singing, but they get the point across well enough. They’ve got the gastly thing going well for them, but it misses power and general demonic gutturalness that makes someone like Mikael Akerfeldt so great.

I should note that this is a concept album. From what my absolutely horrific lyrical analysis skills have managed to gather, it tells a story about someone trying to reach enlightenment (thanks other reviews). I do not know whether the story is any good (proof is left as an exercise for the reader), but the music has plenty of twists and turns, making it feel like a real journey. The album has an incredibly good song flow, making it feel much shorter than the 55 minutes it actually is. Overtly long outro in track 6 and worship elements aside, there’s nothing detracting from the experience. The songs are just very well-written. Each of them is filled with great guitar work, clever vocal lines, creative rhythms and tastefully incorporated elements of oriental folk (excuse the general term, I don’t know enough about the subtleties of the region’s music to make the proper distinctions). And most importantly, they all have their own identity. Along with really crisp production, it’s just a very pleasant listening experience.

Overall, Pillars of Creation is a great achievement. The only thing that’s holding this band back is that they tend to steer dangerously close to Opeth at times (and there’s also a flute motif in Magnanimous blatantly stolen from ORwarriOR by Orphaned Land never mind my memory sucks). This is the sound of a very talented band that hasn’t found its own sound just quite yet. That said, I’m super excited to see what these guys will come up with in the future and I highly recommend this to any Opeth fan out there.

Recommended tracks: Pillars of Creation, Seven, Hireath
You may also like: Hands of Despair, Loneshore, Ahl Sina, Subterranean Masquerade (bandcamp)
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archive page

Label: Independent

Obsidian Tide is:
– Oz Avneya (guitar, vocals)
– Erez Nadler (drums)
– Shachar Bieber (bass, vocals)