Artist: Obseqk
Country: Canada
Label: 7S7W7
Formats: Digial EP
Year: 2026
It is highly unlikely that anybody would claim that Olivier B. Emond is a one-sided musician. With his current and past work in acts such as Gotthammer (now Seraphic Castration), Kiloton, Melth, Pénombre, Moulin Banal, Complot!, Adversaire and Shezmu, he has not only demonstrated his impressive musicality, but perhaps even more so his understanding of all these different genres. With Obseqk, the latest addition to his ever-expanding resume, he’s testing the water with some unadulterated Funeral Doom.
Fans of Worship, Thergothon and both early Mournful Congregation and Evoken should take notice, as this is actually a rather impeccable mixture of those four. Arguably, though, ‘Funereal Pillar’ feels closest to Worship. With emphasis on feels. Admittedly, the French lyrics do help in keeping up this resemblance, but the slow and equally bleak riffs and the low gurgling vocals are the main attraction. It might not have the same quality and impact of Worship’s ‘Last Tape Before Doomsday’, which I consider the absolute and undisputed pinnacle of the Funeral Doom genre, but it’s frighteningly close. But besides the more obvious comparisons to those Funeral Doom legends, Obseqk is also said to have drawn inspiration from Warning, a Doom Metal band from the opposite kind. That might feel a bit contradictory, but it is actually working tremendously. The riffing is indeed very much resembling those mournful tunes on ‘Watching From A Distance’, Warning’s magnum opus and the best ever recorded Doom Metal record. Adding this bit of epic and sombre riffing to the blend of otherwise rather harsh and demented Funeral Doom makes Obesqk a rather unique entity in the world of dooom.
With two tracks, spanning over a playing time of almost 25 minutes, this is some serious mournful, agonized and utterly dark stuff that takes me back two decades when, at least to me, this sort of music seemed to have their absolute heydays. Maybe not so much in number of releases, but at least in the recognition these bands and recordings got. This could’ve easily been on the sadly defunct Painiac label from Belgium, which, besides some impeccable Black Metal, was specialized in the most tormenting and agonizing Funeral Doom in existence. A legacy on which some bands, like Loss for instance, tried to build a new plateau of underground momentum, but seemingly failed to do so.
The moments when something truly interesting wells up from the depths are rare, but even if it only happens once every few years, if the result is like “Funereal Pillars”, you won’t hear me complaining. In a way, it also contributes to the ultimate underground atmosphere that this genre exudes; this is simply not for ordinary, mortal souls. Sometimes the term “acquired taste” is used for the music we discuss on a daily basis on these pages, but in fact there is little to which it is as applicable as music like this.
