SKY SHADOW OBELISK – The Gift Of Light

Peter Scartabello's Sky Shadow Obelisk are back on Aristocrazia Webzine, a band whose works have been appreciated by both Mourning and me. The EP we will examine — published on Scartabello's Yuggoth Records — comes out a year later from the previous "Beacon", but contains a number of differences.

You can see a different approach from the previous work starting from the cover already: first, no lovecraftian sceneries. This time it is a more natural landscape from our world to make the background for "The Gift Of Light", the contrasts between lights and shadows are clearly visible in the picture and got resumed in the titles of the two tracks that make up the album, as in the music itself: the title-track has the same semblance of those rays of sunshine that find their way among the trees, while the second track sounds more aggressive, straightforward and gloomy. Even the belonging to different dimensions — the Cthulhu's one of "Beacon" and the real one for the new EP — is evident in the songs: if the first album was highly destabilizing, in this case we find ourselves in front of something deeply different, albeit equally particular.

The heavy avantgarde tendencies that characterize the Sky Shadow Obelisk's Doom-Death Metal, this time let room for other genres contaminations: the opening and the closing of "The Gift Of Light" rely on an Ambient synth, while the mid part of the track calls to mind some sort of Rock-Grunge with some elements coming from the more extreme world, until it flows in a sudden and unexpected Death Metal moment. "The Promise Of Darkness", instead is more closer to a Stoner-Doom made heavier by a frantic bass and a deep growl that only sometimes is replaced by the clean singing. There are a lot of differences between the two tracks, but — as light and darkness — they seem to complete each other, thanks to Scartabello's ability to insert his musical identity in them.

"The Gift Of Light" is the proof of how Sky Shadow Obelisk is a reality that deserves to be more known for its personality and, above all, for the quality of its music. Guest contributions demonstrate attention to details of the project's mind, that inserts with naturalness different male and female voices, a cello, synths and guitar solos and so on, without this giving away the focus from Scartabello's ability to shape his particular creature. Needless to say, whoever is looking for non-standard Doom Metal is sure to find something to sink their teeth into on this record.