In recent years the delightfully vague term 'post-black metal' has been applied to a whole slew of successful bands that crept out of the woodwork and into the metal mainstream (insofar as metal can be considered mainstream!) Many would argue the current poster boys of this movement to be HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY, or indeed someone very much like them! With so many bands setting increasingly high standards in a highly populated genre, it is clearly no small task to be noticed! Allow me to direct your attention to another worthy name in this trend: OBSOLETE THEORY. Hailing from Italy, this band have created, in their second full-length album, a truly great yet accessible entry-way into the varied and, occasionally weird, world of post-black metal. Drawing from a number of different sources, they manage to paint a wonderfully rich canvass of layers that all complement each other wonderfully.

Album opener "Night Of Omen" feels vaguely proggy in so many ways. Indeed, it has a distinct TOOL feel about it, something of a curveball considering the overall tone of the album. Many of the key features of this band's style are laid out fairly early on. The songs themselves feel more like collections of individual 'scenes' than concretely connected. This is not to say they are at all messy or incoherent, quite the opposite. What we get is a panoply of playful sections that dip and dabble in and out of sub-genres - showing, among other things, just how widely 'read' this band truly is!

"The Vanished" opens on a very doomy note, whilst also combining clean and guttural vocals in a manner familiar to fans of IN FLAMES. There's something for everyone here: black, death, doom, melodic (even synthy outro) - all woven together in a way that feels not remotely jarring or scatter-brained, but combined masterfully by people who clearly know their territory and aren't afraid to push against genre conventions.

"Acherontia Atropos" is a delightful kind of palate cleanser - less technically complex, not to mention a little shorter, than the tracks that precede and follow it, the listener is treated to a compulsively head-banging track that is a total thrill to listen to (in my case, again and again!) "Atë", much like "The Vanished", has an almost doomy feel about it - a slower tempo and more conventionally melodic riffs and chord progressions contribute to a distinctly mournful tone, the considerable acoustic section towards the end adding more layers to this already rich tapestry. Once again, these guys prove that truly there's something here for everybody!

"Onirica" is probably the most ambitious track on the album, featuring strings courtesy of Ally Storch, and the result is simply glorious! Whilst not quite representing a full-blown detour into symphonic metal, the addition of strings here lifts the track to greater heights. OBSOLETE THEORY are, as I said, clearly well read and aware of their place in the complex metal web - they revel in it. This is mature music, without being difficult, complicated or, worse, pretentious.