GORGUTS' Discordant Third Album Obscura Turns 25

Gorguts released their third album, Obscura, in 1998, but the material for the record was actually completed between 1993 and 1994. Like loads of metal bands in the 1990s, finding a record label willing to put out a metal album, especially ones attached to metal subgenres such as Gorguts sweet spot, technical death metal.

Following the release of their second album and death metal classic, The Erosion of Sanity (1993), Gorguts was dropped by Roadrunner Records, choosing to, in vocalist Luc Lemay's opinion, give more support to Sepultura and other bands signed to Roadrunner like Fear Factory. They would shop the album around, but had no luck finding one that who, according to Lemay, “knew what to do” with Obscura. Lineup changes would soon follow after the recording of Obscura with the departure of both guitarist "Big" Steeve Hurdle (RIP) and drummer Patrick Robert.

Hurdle's innovative playing is one of many reasons Obscura is a textbook example of technical death metal. Hurdle was also deeply involved in many other aspects of the album beyond his signature high-pitched wailing and mastery of pinch-harmonics–which immediately twist your ears apart in the opening track "Obscura." Hurdle also wrote all the lyrics for Obscura with vocalist Luc Lemay and bassist Steve Cloutier and provided additional vocals. Had Obscura been released as intended, presumably sometime in 1994, it would have been one of many death metal albums released that year (despite record companies stepping away from the genre). However, it would not have sounded like any other death metal/technical death metal album at the time. Sure, technical death metal had been around for a while by the mid-90s, but Gorguts turned it inside out with Obscura. 

Gorguts (at the time, Lemay, Hurdle, Steve Cloutier and Steve MacDonald) would begin work on Obscura in the summer of 1993. Of note is the fact that Gorguts drummer Steve MacDonald does not actually play on Obscura, Patrick Robert has credited MacDonald with composing a lot of what Robert's ended up contributing to Obscura and has said he only "embellished" MacDonald's original percussion. By November of 1994 the album was complete but it was not recorded until 1997/1998 due to lack of label interest. So, for four or so years, the band would play the material for Obscura over and over again, perfecting it.

The first song Gorguts wrote for Obscura was "Rapturous Grief" which according to Lemay took around a month to write. Once things got more familiar between the four, songs would come together quicker often in two to three days' time and would be a complete departure from the bands two previous albums. We've briefly discussed the importance of Steeve Hurdle's revolutionary guitar work on Obscura, but there is another influence of note that Hurdle brought to Obscura–the philosophies of Osho (Chandra Mohan Jain), an Indian philosopher and mystic. Hurdle's immersion in Osho' books would translate to lyrics and direct references to Osho's teachings as well as the Indian philosophy of Sukshma sarira or "subtle body." Two tracks on Obscura, "Subtle Body," and "The Art of Sombre Ecstasy" contain nods to Sukshma sarira. Osho's influence on Obscura was further cemented with the inclusion of the following quote from the Indian mystic in the liner notes adorned by artwork by Lemay.  

“The journey is long and the path is pathless and one has to be alone. There is no map and no one to guide. But there is no alternative. One cannot escape it, one cannot evade it. One has to go on the journey. The goal seems impossible but the urge to go on is intrinsic. The need is deep in the soul.”

One of the most telling things that's been said about Hurdle is Luc Lemay's description of the late guitarist as a person who was "obsessed" with "spirituality and sonic textures” and was always seeking out "new ways" to produce sounds with a guitar. The cover art for Obscura features a bearded man (believed to be Hurdle, it's not) photographed in a lotus pose. The back cover has photos of all four members of Gorguts with the real Hurdle in a lotus pose. Gorguts was absolutely sending us a message on Obscura, and it was received loud and clear; bending or breaking archetypes can produce lasting, genre-changing results. The importance of Obscura can’t be underscored. The record itself was pretty well-received, with some choruses of “what the fuck is this?” that evenutally gave way to this is fucking it. A setiment that has only increased as time has passed as it pertains to the Obscura’s significance and Gorguts early innovations to the genre. 

Obscura has been reissued a few times since 1998, and for the first time on vinyl in 2012 on Canadian punk/metal/hardcore record store and vinyl-only record label based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, War on Vinyl. Another vinyl reissue would come from UK label Century Media on various colored pressings in mint green, lilac and translucent blue. In 2019 another reissue of Obscura (which notes to also be remastered, though that does not appear to be the case), on cassette and vinyl.  All were very, very limited runs so if your technical death metal section of your record collection is missing Obscura, you have lots of options to change that (and you should!).