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Moving away into groove metal climates did not stop the Canadians from Obliveon to push the envelope further, towards even more radical changes that were less liked by the general public. A few years after the release of "Cybervoid", the quintet went into subsequent trends that hit metal music at the time on the verge of the previous millennium. Namely, they embraced the groove/industrial/nu hybrid, i.e. thoroughly hated influences that, even in their boom times, caused rather extreme opinions and considerable criticism. And well, if only these trends were in the same taste as the fourth Obliveon longplay released in 1999, entitled "Carnivore Mothermouth", then perhaps these styles would not have such a poor reputation.
For the first time in the history of the blog, there is a situation where I will optimistically speak about an album from the genre of nu metal aesthetics in the case of a band that once could pave the way for a progressive approach to death metal together with Atheist, Cynic and, most of all, Death. However, the reason for this opinion is simple. Qualitatively, a similar move by the Canadians was already great on "Cybervoid" and on "Carnivore Mothermouth" it's not significantly worse. Well, paradoxically to what I said above, despite such strong changes, here too the quintet found themselves in new styles very well and for balance there are small references to earlier, more normal albums. There is not much of the second element, and most often it concerns technical nuances, atmosphere and implementation, because the main core of "Carnivore..." is mechanical, jerky, disciplined and at the same time just right...to the dance!
On "Carnivore Mothermouth" you can feel numerous associations with sounds such as Korn, Slipknot, Rammstein or - mentioned in my previous review - Pantera, Fear Factory and Machine Head, although Obliveon from the above-mentioned has this advantage of being even more diverse and technical and less predictable. Of course, without knowing "Cybervoid" I advise against any contact with this release, because the changes in it (them?) are sometimes too iconoclastic and distant from progressive threads, as well as devoid of any death metal elements. Despite this, the group has an idea for itself, ironically, it a great heaviness and the atmosphere is as addictive as it was years ago. Well, just listen to the intense or with crazy cyber-atmosphere "Fatal Induction", "Devil In My Eyes", "Polarity", "Coercive Currents", "Technocarnivore Mothermouth" (the subtitle and rhythm of the song quite clearly suggest what the next album would be, if it was written after the discussed one) or "Désert Incorporel" sung entirely in French - it's simply good to listen to and there are plenty of high points in these compositions that would make you pay more attention to them. There are also more sterile songs like "Love, Die, Resurrect" or "Glass Made Of Flesh", although they do not irritate as much as typical nu metal.
We therefore come to an interesting conclusion that basically each of the first four Obliveon albums, although stylistically different, is a piece of valuable and well-thought-out music. Of the four, "Carnivore Mothermouth" is, of course, the weakest, but this does not mean that the reduction is drastic. Considering the entry into groove/industrial/nu and the general risk associated with it, the band did it with class and did not abandon the cosmos of their predecessors. It's just a pity that at the "Carnivore..." stage, Obliveon's activities were interrupted for many years.
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