Obsidian Kingdom

Obsidian Kingdom

Obsidian Kingdom is a group from Barcelona, Spain, formed in 2005 and active since then. Its line-up includes Jaime Díaz-Otero and Esteban Portero. The band is associated with black metal, metal and post-metal, and its music is often described as combining progressive metal, experimental elements and black metal.

Style and approach

The group’s work is known for its contrasts, with a strong emphasis on atmosphere, aesthetics and stage presentation. Its lyrics favour sombre and cryptic themes, while the music uses a wide range of sounds to create different moods and emotions. Its sound draws on progressive rock, post-metal, black metal, alternative rock and electronica, and it is also described as hard to classify because of its broad stylistic range.

Releases

Obsidian Kingdom’s debut album, Mantiis – An agony in fourteen bites, is a conceptual release built as a single song split into fourteen tracks. It is first self-released and sold by the band before being reissued by Season of Mist in 2014. The album is noted for moving across several styles and for taking influence from a wide range of sources, including the music of Akira Yamaoka, Cult of Luna, Ulver and Pink Floyd.

The band follows this with the remix album Torn & Burnt - the Mantiis Remixes in 2013, which features reinterpretations of seven tracks from Mantiis by artists including Oktopus of Dälek, Subheim, Poordream, Necro+Deathmort, Jr Morgue, Drumcorps, Larvae and Mothboy.

The second studio album, A Year With No Summer, comes out in 2016. It shifts toward post-metal and bass electronica, while also drawing on late-1990s American alternative rock and early UK progressive rock. The album is produced in London by Jaime Gomez Arellano and includes collaborations with Kristoffer Rygg of Ulver and Attila Csihar of Sunn O))) and Mayhem.