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This is my first time coming across Obscura, which seem to be hailed as progressive/technical death metal by most, but I find this is closer to Gothenburg-style melodic death metal, though it definitely checks the marks for progressive and technical; it’s just not the prog/tech death metal I usually run into. Anyway... From the start, A Valediction reminded me of the melodic death scene of the early 2000s (just before it became flooded and intolerable), be it the vocals or the music which is more lightweight than "regular" death metal, so to speak. It doesn’t take long before the progressive and technical wizardry kick in and then you know you’re not dealing with a band that’s just trying to ape the aforementioned overcrowded genre. There are some more or less atmospheric passages here and there that make you stop and take notice, but the progressive and technical playing are definitely front and centre. There’s some use of clean vocals that the album could do without; I found they didn’t add anything and come off more as a distraction than anything else. A Valediction is a good album, just don’t go in expecting full-blown technical death metal, but rather a more melodic approach to it.