black metal / death metal
We have been following, with a lot of interest, the musical path of the Uruguayan dark metal duo for several years. Upon Shadows is Natalia Arocena (bass) and Tamara Picardo (keyboards, guitars and vocals). Modern Obscurantism is the cherry on the cake of their hard work. The duo from Montevideo started with this female-fronted dark metal act in 2003. Tamara Picardo moved to Finland in 2013 but the less Upon Shadows stayed alive and creative trying hard to spread their dark metal music into the world.
The production of Modern Obscurantism was in professional hands. We could listen to an outstanding well balanced sounding album with ten varied atmospheric dark metal tracks. Tamara Picardo’s grating voice is melted in spooky keyboard chords and guitar riffs referring to the old school atmospheric black metal days. Beautiful angelic background vocals are added to her demonic growling, creating a dark romantic mood.
Session drummer Joonas Alaräihä (member of Finnish thrash metal band Fatal Effect) controls tightly and detailed the wood chopping with bass player Natalia Arocena. Although Tamara Picardo is the musician in charge, the rhythm section has also an important impact on this recording. Modern Obscurantism has a vast amount of interesting details hidden in many layers. Dwelling piano riddles and chiming bells give a creepy gothic mood to the album. We could hear and feel that Tamara Picardo put a lot of inspiration from the land of a thousand lakes into this album. Even the South American roots of the band remained by adding Spanish lyrics in several songs.
Upon Shadows shows the result of dedication and persistence on Modern Obscurantism. We have listened with full attention and got fused into this atmospheric dark metal (with a black metal touch) trip. The mastering and mixing of this inspiring album was in the hands of Mika Pohjola at Soundmix Recording Studio in Oulu, Finland. We can only bow before these ladies of Upon Shadows.
Patsker
The production of Modern Obscurantism was in professional hands. We could listen to an outstanding well balanced sounding album with ten varied atmospheric dark metal tracks. Tamara Picardo’s grating voice is melted in spooky keyboard chords and guitar riffs referring to the old school atmospheric black metal days. Beautiful angelic background vocals are added to her demonic growling, creating a dark romantic mood.
Session drummer Joonas Alaräihä (member of Finnish thrash metal band Fatal Effect) controls tightly and detailed the wood chopping with bass player Natalia Arocena. Although Tamara Picardo is the musician in charge, the rhythm section has also an important impact on this recording. Modern Obscurantism has a vast amount of interesting details hidden in many layers. Dwelling piano riddles and chiming bells give a creepy gothic mood to the album. We could hear and feel that Tamara Picardo put a lot of inspiration from the land of a thousand lakes into this album. Even the South American roots of the band remained by adding Spanish lyrics in several songs.
Upon Shadows shows the result of dedication and persistence on Modern Obscurantism. We have listened with full attention and got fused into this atmospheric dark metal (with a black metal touch) trip. The mastering and mixing of this inspiring album was in the hands of Mika Pohjola at Soundmix Recording Studio in Oulu, Finland. We can only bow before these ladies of Upon Shadows.
Patsker
