“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face, forever”...
These famous words by George Orwell set the tone and resound throughout the debut full-length album from Brazil's dark hardcore punk sect Obsoletion. A grim and foreboding crossover hybridization of blackened hardcore punk and primordial heavy metal drawing influences from bands like Cro-Mags, Integrity, Sheer Terror (from which the band took its name), Mayhem, Celtic Frost, Hellhammer, G.I.S.M., Carnivore and Possessed, and serving as a dismal soundtrack to a dark world that is rapidly deteriorating and just getting worse.
The crushing forthcoming hardcore omen has been teased by iconic punk and hardcore blog IDIOTEQ, who in presenting the first single “Interdimensional Chaos” have remarked how the album “captures the essence of a bleak reality teetering on the edge of collapse”, continuing that “the second track, ‘Interdimensional Chaos’, stands out as a powerful embodiment of this dystopian vision” and “serves as a sonic representation of the album’s themes—a harrowing blend of cyberpunk and occult imagery that feels as if it’s ripped from the pages of a dystopian novel. The track’s relentless riffs and brutal rhythms are like the soundtrack to a world where survival depends on a precarious balance between ancient magic and cutting-edge technology”. You can check out the feature and listen to the song HERE.
Indeed, the bleak and primeval self-titled assault masterminded by the São Paulo cult conjures shadows of a stark future dystopia and of sinister visions of fear, alienation and paranoia coming from within oppressive militarist technocracies and corrupt surveillance-states aiming for total social enslavement, while the natural world and man's last shreds of sanity revel and toil in a final battle for retribution and survival. The album's lyrics and its staggering retro-futurist art design (by Fernando Giotefeli, Jordy Kuster and José Vinícius) also explore concepts of magic and occultism from the 19th and 20th centuries, transfigured into present and future unrest, making themes such as cyborgism, post-humanism, and surveillance capitalism extremely relevant and ominous. The band's raw and gruesome riffs weaponize these themes and ignite the barricades, engulfing the listener in a maelstrom of tear gas, fire and shrapnel, compounding twenty minutes of wrath and refusal into a violent sonic cyberpunk epic that celebrates the glory days of US 80's and early 90's hardcore punk, thrash, death, black and heavy metal.
Obsoletion’s self-titled debut album is slated for an October 11 2024 release worldwide via Sentient Ruin on vinyl, cassette and digital/streaming formats, along with an exclusive spread of on-demand merch, all of which are now pre-orderable via all our channels.
The blackened raw hardcore punk cult of Obsoletion emerged in São Paulo, Brazil, in the middle of 2018, formed by Zoio (guitar), Azt (bass), Flávio Barbosa (vocals) and Lucas Alonso (drums). This lineup recorded and released the band’s debut demo tape which was released in Brazil in 2019 by the Brazilian label Thinking Straight Records. The demo showcased a unique blend of dark and sinister sounds, ranging from US hardcore like Sheer Terror and Integrity, to evil heavy metal and punk in the vien of G.I.S.M. and Hellhammer, ultimately attracting the attention of Sentient Ruin who re-relased the cassette in the USA in 2022. Around this time original guitarist Zoio was replaced by new guitarist Nyne (Falsa Luz) and bassist Azt was replaced by new bassist Daniel 'Barizon' (Stomp and ex-Joker). Despite playing a successful string of dates, the new lineup however didn’t last long, and soon Nyne left allowing original guitarist Zoio to return, along with new second guitarist Filipe Maia now added into the fold. This revamped original lineup would then prepare the writing of recording of the band’s 2024 debut full-length self-titled album for Sentient Ruin. Uniting the Punk, Hardcore and Black Metal sounds and influences of bands like Sheer Terror (which also inspired the band's name), Darkthrone, Mayhem, Sodom, Agnostic Front, G.I.S.M., Cro-Mags, Integrity, Celtic Frost and Hellhammer, Obsoletion are purveyors of a dystopian dark world ruled by violence and greed. After the original lineup was reunited and expanded, the band’s concept began to evolve into increasingly complex and dark territories, touching on themes of political pessimism, dystopian science fiction, and rogue capitalism, with the sound following suit, and becoming increasingly ominous and bleak, and paving the way for a rebirth and new era for the band symbolized and represented by their 2024 self-titled debut full-length album to be released in October 2024 worldwide by Sentient Ruin.