OBTEST unveils their 3rd full-length studio production entitled Is Kartos I Karta (From Generation To Generation), a very decent attempt to create folkish-viking-like heathen war heavy metal.
The music is good for this kind of genre, it is meant to be like this, long songs, fast paced rhythms, heavy metal all the way with fast riffs, endless guitar solos, double guitar melodies and other displays of high musical skills. There’s only one big problem on this album; even when the music is well planned, synchronized, and stylish and clean, it gets tiring due to the lack of variation and spirit. At some point OBTEST got way too comfortable on their ground and stopped giving more. Another low of this new release is the lack of variation on the vocal side, the singer just let it go the same way all the time, a broad horizon is always needed in vocals, more inventive highs and lows for the vocal tones always enhance this kind of music.
For all the other sides, Is Kartos I Karta is a good album with good sound engineering, and many high moments where OBTEST displays loads of virtuosity and maturity in execution for almost every song. Particularly I liked the song entitled Griausmavaldys (Thunderlord), since it synthesizes pretty much what this album is, and it has some riffs and some rhythm changes that I liked.
People listening more to power metal, war heavy metal, odd kinds of folk metal and all the different variations would find this CD very interesting, even when I had a difficult time getting to the end of it for the lack of variation, the plain and monotonous way they managed their rhythm changes and vocals and of course the fact that, at least for the musical mechanics the band excels merits, but weakens a lot for the spirit, innovation and creativity.
Is Kartos I Karta is not the right choice if you are either going to try this genre for the 1st time, or if you are going to pick something in random mode, but I can’t deny that many Folk-War Heavy Metal fans out there are going to enjoy this album since it’s pretty much complete for the requirements of this specific kind of music.