Northlane

Obsidian

Listening to Northlane’s forthcoming album, Obsidian, is akin to visiting a place you’ve never been before in waking life, but still feels familiar — like a half-remembered dream at the edge of your mind’s peripheral vision. Between the record’s bottom-heavy grooves, soaring guitars, and signature atmospherics, it wrenches and churns, the colors flash and fade, the shapes swirl and writhe.

Obsidian creates a backdrop inhabited by strong, sensory visuals — a future near-dystopian, neon-soaked darkscape, and monuments wrapped in mist. It sounds like the soundtrack to a distant future’s future, at times evoking the same metaphysical response as Hans Zimmer’s score for the 2021 sci-fi masterpiece, Dune.

Of particular note are Marcus Bridge’s vocals, which are the ship riding the heaving waves of sound, and recall Benea Reach’s Ilkka Viitasalo — searing and soaring by turns, weaving melody and grit in equal measure.

Every element contributes to the whole of Obsidian, and mostly weaves a continuous theme — more like a tapestry than a drawing or a picture. It weighs anchor upon more recognizable shores at times, but these are flashes of familiarity in an otherwise opaque and swirling soundscape. You’ll hear hints of Depeche Mode, Korn, Static X, and Rob Zombie…if it’s dark, heavy, electronic, and brooding, Northlane doesn’t hesitate to bring it to bear.

All in all, it’s an arresting album, and the experience often finds the listener with an ear cocked to the side, wondering, “Have I been here before?”

Obsidian is set to release Friday, April 1 and is now available for pre-save.