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Track Listing: Septuagint Vortex Omnivium Ocean Gateways Euclidean Elements Prismal Dawn Celestial Spheres Velocity A Transcendental Serenade Aevum

German technical death metal masters Obscura absolutely blew me away with their second studio album "Cosmogenesis", and as soon as I got a chance to listen to the follow-up release "Omnivium", my anticipation knew no bounds. I had faith in the talent of the musicians involved and the effort they would put in to this composition, so I was expecting an album that would match up to the previous effort, but this is far beyond anything I expected.

"Septuagint" gets the album to the perfect start, and I can totally foresee this as the song they'll open their future live shows with. The song is written brilliantly, with a great influx of acoustic guitar and their quintessential fretless bass along with the breathtaking guitar solos we're used to from the band by now. "Vortex Omnivium" is a lot heavier, having some excellent drum fills. This one-two punch to begin the album should keep all extreme metal fans satisfied.

"Ocean Gateways" puts the brakes on so to speak, as it's a down-tuned, down-tempo song with some very interesting variations in the vocals. It's a good change-up from the songs preceding and following it. "Euclidean Elements" brings back the technicality with the guitar solos, and turns out to be another amazingly well-composed tune. While this one hits you hard straight away, "Prismal Dawn" builds up gradually and beautifully, on the strength of that acoustic guitar sound re-emerging for the first time since track 1. By the time you're done listening to this song, I wouldn't be surprised if you got swept off your feet. If this song isn't played on their next tour, I'd be terribly upset.

"Celestial Spheres" shifts the tempo again, and the standout quality of this song is the use of clean vocals which proves just how versatile these musicians are. Simply put, this song is a masterpiece, and has tremendous repeat value. "Velocity" showcases more of Hannes Grossmann's killer drumming. This is easily the most progressive track on the entire album, and he adapts to the changing musical patterns with effortless ease. "A Trancendental Serenade" is largely an instrumental track, which gives you the maximum chance to feel the impact of the mesmerizing music. The album closes out with two more near-perfect compositions, "Aevum" and "Concerto", the latter turning out to be a rather delightful ending.

Overall, the only thing I can say to sum up the brilliance of the music here is, listen to it yourself and bask in the awesomeness. No amount of words can possibly do justice to describing this release as a whole. Decrepit Birth's "Polarity" was the best technical death metal album of 2010, and indeed one of the best albums of the year, but this might well turn out to be the year for Obscura.

A truly mind-blowing composition. Simply unbelievable!