Obrero Sweden

"Noctum and Graveyard both explore metal in its very early incarnation, unleashing psychedelic doom and gloom upon the world. Their fellow countrymen in Obrero have selected a similar path for their musical experiments, although they have a slightly more modern sound.

The music on Obrero's debut album inherits the dark psychedelic doom and gloom of the likes of Black Sabbath, St. Vitus and, especially, Pentagram, but less doomy acts like Led Zeppelin also seem to have had an influence on the music on this release, and a track like 'Son of Tutankhamun' reminds me of Trouble's "Manic Frustration".

Needless to say, we are dealing with heavy, doom-ladden riff-o-ramic metal music here with roots in heavy blues rock. Given that Obrero have chosen to explore proto-doom, they never reach slowness of doom acts like Winter, early Cathedral, Warning or Mournful Congregation or sludge acts like Neurosis or Megaton Leviathan, but the listener can expect groovy heaviness galore 70s style, and tracks like 'The Fourth Earl', 'Octaman', 'Charles the Hammer' and 'Exterminate' contain riffs that do come across as crushingly heavy.

If you like your early Sabbath, your St. Vitus, your "Etheral Mirror", your Pentagram, your "Manic Frustration" and your southern sludge rock, then you will definitely like Obrero's groovy and heavy "Mortui Vivos Docent".

(review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"