VARIOUS ARTISTS - Transcending Obscurity 2025 label sampler review

 

VARIOUS ARTISTS - Transcending Obscurity 2025 label sampler

Transcending Obscurity Records

Well one of my favorite labels puts out their great stuff for 2025 so everyone to check out. I know last year Transcending Obscurity Records had a handful of 2024 favorites in my end of the year listings. Listening to this sampler gives me some ideas on what bands I really wanna check out in 2025. 

For the record the list on this compilation here is as follows:

1. Floating (Sweden) - I Reached The Mew (Death Metal/Post Punk)

2. Byonoisegenerator (Russia) - Eb(D#) (Jazzgrind)

3. Veilburner (US) - That Which Crypts Howls Grandeur (Avant-garde Death/Black Metal)

4. Serpent Corpse (Canada) - Iron Corpse (Death Metal)

5. Dead Chasm (Italy) - Spectral Tyranny (Death/Doom Metal)

6. Viande (France) - L'homme Brasier (Death Metal)

7. Thorn (US) - Quartersawn Remains (Death Metal)

8. Retching (US) - Shower Curtain Silhouette (Death Metal)

9. Eschaton (US) - Blood of the People (Technical Death Metal)

10. Unaligned (US) - Essence Erased (Technical Blackened Death Metal)

11. Fleshbore (US) - The Ancient Knowledge (Technical Death Metal)

12. Enragement (Finland) - Insectiferous Abomination (Brutal Death Metal)

13. Haxprocess (US) - The Confines of the Flesh (Progressive Death Metal)

14. Xenosis (US) - Altar of the Hound (Progressive Death Metal)

15. Imperialist (US) - Starstorm (Black Metal)

16. Skaphos (France) - Abyssal Tower (Death/Black Metal)

17. Obscureviolence (Russia) - Pulse of Subconscious Cruelty (Death/Black Metal)

18. Shrine of Denial (Turkey) - Climbing Through Nothingness (Death/Black Metal)

19. Crown of Madness (Canada) - Ashes of Mine (Dissonant Death Metal)

20. Mors Verum (Canada) - Bloodied Teeth (Dissonant Death Metal)

21. Hexrot (US) - Heavenward (Avant-Garde Death Metal)

22. Perishing (Costa Rica) - Castle of the Leached Body (Death/Doom Metal)

23. Dwelling Below (US) - Wearisome Guardians (Death/Doom Metal)

24. Felgrave (Norway) - Pale Flowers Under an Empty Sky (Avantgarde Death/Black/Doom Metal)

25. Misanthropæ (US) - Enshrined (Dissonant Death Metal)

26. Pillar of Light (US) - Certain End (Sludge/Doom/Post-Metal)

So the bands I'm interested in from this year's label acts are a FLOATING from Sweden who sound interesting with their Death Metal meets Post Punk sound. Then there's BYONOISEGENERATOR from Russia because they sound like some really insane grindcore. SERPENT CORPSE from Canada is cool old school Death Metal. Add to that there's DEAD CHASM from Italy, VIANDE from France and RETCHING from the US all of whom are old school DM. 

Yes as all readers of this blog (and frankly who isn't a reader by now) know old school Death Metal is my go to sound. But this sampler has plenty of bands pushing the progressive or brutal tech side of the genre. There's also some interesting Black Metal by IMPERIALIST from the US. SKAPHOS from France sounds cool as well. As far as the slow and low sounds of Death Doom go there's a couple of bands on here but PERISHING from Costa Rica is definitely promising. 

All in all this sampler is 26 tracks of extreme metal mayhem that'll please any fan of uncontrolled musical destruction and chaos. That's why I like this label and it's also why a dozen or more of their releases appear on my end of year favorite list. Let me also add that the song sequencing on here is killer. In the beginning the music tortures you, by the mid point you're getting the shit beat out of ya and in the end you're buried alive. How cool is that? That's cool as shit so support this label.

https://tometal.com/

LISTEN HERE: 

https://transcendingobscurity.bandcamp.com/album/2025-label-sampler