Review written by Glenn Schrijvers.

This is the debut EP of ‘Obsidian Skies’ from Colorado, USA. They play galactic progressive melodic death metal from beyond the stars. The band consists of the duo Logan Dougherty (piano, guitar and orchestration) and Tim Watervoort (vocals, bass and guitar). I hear you thinking no drummer? At the moment they are a studio band but that doesn’t bother me at all. The main story of the "Saturnian" EP is about mankind leaving Earth. Saturn’s moon (TITAN) is the destination where humankind seeks refuge. Fun fact: Logan and Tim have degrees in physics, astrophysics and linguistics. Obsidian Skies saw the light in 2020 during the COVID-19 outbreak. The making of this EP kept them sane amongst these difficult times to create this out of the world songs. The album art reminds me of the movie Iron Sky and Total Recall.

We start our journey with ‘Celestial Age’ were mankind starts their quest to Titan. The song consists of piano, brutal and angelic vocals with melodic guitars and blasting drums with orchestration throughout the song. What a journey this is! Reminds me of bands like Dethklok, My Dying Bride, Fleshgod Apocalypse. This is galactic metal going at the speed of light! In ‘Rebirth In The Stars’ Mankind lives in a Colony on Titan. Everybody has a job and starts to live a normal life again. But a group of individuals cannot forget the people who got left behind on Earth. This results in a strong regime (The Intergalatic Empire in Star Wars) and somebody stands up against the military power. There are Hans Zimmer-like parts that I really enjoy. The vocals remind of System Of A Down, Jonathan Young, Trivium. Our intergalactic journey ends with ‘Home’. The song is about the feelings of one habitant of TITAN who misses Earth but finally realizes that he can make new songs of this world. The clean vocals here remind me of Whitechapel. The focus lays more in the singing but there is still much melody. The acoustic moment that ends in growling vocals is my favorite chapter in the song.

What a journey this was from Earth to TITAN through space! From acoustic, piano, orchestral to the singing. I enjoyed every bit of it. The debut EP Saturnian was a pleasant melodic death metal surprise and looking forward what comes next. Logan and Tim really put much effort and you hear it. This is for the Metalfans of Rivers of Nihil, Opeth, Scar Symmetry and Into Eternity.

80/100