The Great Observer Loss Of Transcendence Review
The Great Observer
Loss of Transcendence
BlackSeed
2026
Rome, Italy, 2021. That's when Daniele Z. (guitar and vocals, ex-Night Gaunt) and Luca E. (drums and vocals, ex-Demonomancy and ex-Thulsa Doom) came together in a rehearsal room to start a new musical project. That project did not have a direction or a plan, but it did have a name: The Great Observer. So, what's in a name? Well, according to the two founders, it is a “fascination with the age-old questions that have haunted humanity since the beginning of recorded history, whereby the further away you zoom out from Earth, the more fragile and invisible mankind would appear in the eyes of a higher consciousness or ‘being’ tucked away in the lost regions of the universe.” What that says is that this is very thought-provoking and esoteric material lyrically, but the sounds containing said ideas are an amalgam of black, thrash, and death metal motifs. These are the menacing skeletons that power the ten songs that make up their debut, Loss In Transcendence.
In 2023, Claudio S. (bass, Vultures Vengeance) and Matteo A. (guitar) joined the band, and work began on this very album. Right away, I can tell by the mix and mastering (by The Forge Music Productions—Flamekeeper, Vultures Vengeance, Night Gaunt, etc.) that it aims for a classic, heavily reverberated, cavernous sound. To my ears, usually this means everything sounds as if it were tracked at the bottom of a well. While there is SOME of that going on sonically, no one is (pardon the pun) buried, and all of the instruments carry well and aren't battling it out to be heard. Devoid of any modern production techniques, this is a welcome change from the jump. The vibe is raw, truly low-fi, and terrifying.
The songs themselves here range in length from three to four and a half minutes, so they are neither long-winded nor too brief. And what of said songs? They are truly inspired by the obscure and lesser-known underground. The vocals of Daniele and Luca are situated a bit behind the instruments and are not so much black metal shrieking or deep gutturals, but reminiscent of LG Petrov and Johnny Hedlund, more of an anguished shout/growl. This approach works well with the music, which seems to be drawing from Master, (Canada’s) Slaughter, and Order From Chaos (“The Great Observer,” “Sentenced At High Noon”). The tempos here are never breakneck, but they do maintain a fair amount of speed and a marching ¾ gallop. “Herald of Thorns” is a tremolo-picked, mid-paced plod with some cool start/stop moments, some snapping blast sections, and low-tuned, doomy riffing and melodic guitar lines. “How Far the Faithless Will Venture” is another double-bass-forward mid-pacer with low-tuned fretwork and angrier vocals. According to the band, all of these songs are loosely based on the concept of the death of God, “as mankind’s realization of its inability to rely on a higher power brings about the fall of established values—and with them, all forms of stability, security, and certainty. In the new world that emerges, the individual is called to either carve his own path or perish.” Other highlights for me are the headbangable “At the Summit of Consciousness,” the chugging, staccato thrash riffing of “Impervious Creation,” and “The Weight of Being Free.” Closing things out with dissonant chords, tribal drums, and the blackened tremolo guitars and foreboding single-note riffing of the title track brings us all to an untimely end, where I imagine a world of chaos, despair, and barbarism is the new normal.
Loss of Transcendence is a foreboding, bleakly atmospheric, and cinematic listen behind a backdrop of the hallmarks of black, death, and thrash metal. If God is truly set for inevitable demise, as these crazy, demented bastards are suggesting, then this is the soundtrack that will be playing among the ruins of our fallen world. Dark and hateful, this stuff. I kind of love it…
RIYL- Master, Order From Chaos, Mortuary Drape, Autopsy
~TB