Style: Progressive Metal, Atmospheric Black Metal, Post Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: The Ocean, Cult of Luna
Review by: Christopher
Country: Croatia
Release date: 28 February, 2023
Last year a little album by an underground Croatian prog metal group cracked my top ten. Matter Earth by Sikasa was an incredibly satisfying work of extreme post-metal in the vein of The Ocean interspersed with some intriguing experiments in unexpected instruments and styles such as folk and even a splash of reggae. So when a new release popped up as some band I hadn’t heard of AND Sikasa I was naturally intrigued. Turns out it wasn’t new Sikasa, but a new band featuring Sikasa’s frontman Bruno Longfield. Well, Opsimath, your ploy worked because I’m here to review your album.
Opsimath is a one-man band led by multi-instrumentalist Kristijan Bajlo, enlisting the aforementioned Longfield for vocal duties. The general vibe of As We Gaze Upon Ourselves is somewhat akin to “Pleistocene” by The Ocean, that one song where they suddenly veer into black metal for a bit. As much as black metal is an important aspect of Opsimath’s sound, the overall result is more like those extreme post metal bands (The Ocean, Psychonaut, et al.) plus moments of blackened intensity.
Bajlo is clearly an accomplished instrumentalist, giving equal weight to guitar, bass, and drums. The bass rears its head occasionally with an interesting lick, the guitar work spans black metal tremolo, crashing post-metal chords, and decent solos; meanwhile, the drumming is nicely varied from tighter blast beats to passages where the whole kit is being abused. No one who didn’t know would ever suspect there weren’t four talented musicians making this music instead of one.
Matter Earth was a great showcase for Longfield’s vocals from his demonic Opethian growls to his rasping cleans akin to those of Loïc Rossetti of The Ocean, and he proves an inspired choice here–Bajlo also accompanies with clean harmonies and higher black metal screams. Late in “Let Us Go”, for example, come clean harmonies from both singers that would sit comfortably on an Alice in Chains release. And the hook on “Lost in the Wind” is as good a chorus as you’ll ever find in this variety of prog. Final track “Descendants of Suffering” sees Bajlo on his lonesome and this track is testament to Bajlo’s own vocal ability; I love Longfield’s vocals, but Bajlo could sing all this himself if he wanted to.
While the production is imperfect one can’t be all that critical about such issues on a debut. Sometimes As We Gaze Upon Ourselves sounds a little too familiar, often singing from The Ocean’s hymn sheet, but the prominent black metal influence allows Opsimath to stand apart and signals a direction for them to follow on future releases.
As We Gaze Upon Ourselves is a confident debut and further evidence that I need to be paying attention to the Croatian underground prog scene. Bajlo is clearly a distinguished musician with a balanced ear for composition, while Longfield deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Stefan de Graef (Psychonaut, Hippotraktor) with regards to up-and-coming metal vocalists. Watching the name Sikasa paid off: it brought me to Opsimath, doubtlessly another name to keep a close eye on.
Recommended tracks: Introspection, Let Us Go, Lost in the Wind
You may also like: Sikasa, Anciients, Void of Sleep
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Label: Independent
Opsimath is:
– Kristijan Bajlo (guitars, bass, drums, additional vocals, recording, music arrangement, lyrics)
– Bruno Longfield (vocals, vocal arrangement)
– Damjan Bakić (keyboard)
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