Wishing To Exist On An International Scale

Melbourne-based neo-classical, extreme-metal six-piece Ne Obliviscaris unleashed their third full-length album Urn late last year. Since its release, it has arguably received the best reception of any of their releases thus far, with regard to fan feedback and formal reviews in magazines and online. Co-lead vocalist Xenoyr, speaking from his home in Melbourne, is very happy with the reaction overall and attributes at least a degree of it to the fact people are actually finally getting their heads around the extreme, progressive and experimental style of music they create.

"It does take a while to digest what we do," he admits. "Even for myself, sometimes I have to sit back and listen to our music over and over for it to make sense. Granted, I didn't grow up listening to prog music, but when you're part of the process and you see what all the musicians do, it all makes sense and you appreciate what they do.

"If you're someone listening to it from the outside, it takes quite a long time to digest it properly and appreciate all the intricacies. It's only really over time that people get to know us." 

He also feels that Urn was a natural progression from the band's two preceding albums. "In a way, I think Urn kind of encompasses Portal Of I and Citadel, in the way it's written and the feel of it. There's a little more experimentation there, and I think the people who've loved us so far will understand and appreciate that. But at the same time I think there's a strange simplicity to it that people may appreciate more."

Naturally, not all reviews were exactly glowing. Many reviewers seem to get caught up in comparisons with previous releases rather than critiquing a new album based purely on its own merits and Xenoyr agrees he would prefer for reviewers to approach each album in isolation. "I would much prefer that. I get why people feel the need to reflect on previous releases because, if they're reviewing, old fans read the review and they can reflect back and make comparisons to the older stuff, but at the same time it can ruin it. No matter whether a review is a positive one or a negative one, there is always going to be a small influence that comes out of that that is going to affect people, whether they're aware of it or not.

"I'd love for people to review the album based purely on the album itself. If someone had never heard our stuff before, it could quite possibly turn them off."

The band is yet to test out their brand new material on home-ground audiences, but that is about to change as they embark upon their biggest-ever tour of Australasia in February, a tour that will include our Kiwi neighbours for the first-ever time. While the tour's main purpose is to promote the new record, Xenoyr promises a long and very crowd-pleasing set. "It's going to be a 90 to 95-minute set," he reveals, "and we're going to try to give something for everyone, and play songs from all the albums. It's a promotional tour for Urn, but we want to please our old fans as well. So it's going to be something for everyone."

Xenoyr feels that this band has really only scratched the surface in terms of how far they can take things with their career, especially when it comes to attracting a worldwide following. "When I look at it, we're still a small band on the international scene," he says, "and there are still so many people who haven't listened to what we do that don't even know we exist.

"So building our profile is always going to be an ongoing process and we don't intend to slow down."