OBLIVION Collaborates With String Orchestra

The orchestral track "Shred I. Multiverse" from San Francisco Bay Area "blackened, technical post-death metallers" OBLIVION, who feature in their ranks former ALL SHALL PERISH guitarist Ben Orum on bass, can be streamed in the YouTube clip below. The song is one of three bonus tracks on OBLIVION's new album, "Called To Rise", which was released on January 1.

Commented OBLIVION vocalist Nick Vasallo: "As a band, OBLIVION doesn't want to just fit into the typical death metal category. Sure, we come from primarily a death metal background and we fulfill all the stylistic criteria associated with it. But we want our music to have broad conceptions and extreme depth.

"I composed a piece called 'Multiverse' that exists within two universes: metal and classical. The notes are identical and the music functions both as modern art music and modern extreme metal. We hired some of the top string players in the Bay Area to perform the work and recorded video of the sessions.

"One of the aspects that I want to bring from the metal world into the classical is the physical embodiment of the music. Notice how the musicians are almost obligated to move their bodies and headbang to the music in order to rhythmically play it.

"'Shred' is very rhythmic and, like a metal musician, requires total physical involvement with the music.

"The second movement, 'Long Deaf Hate', is a tribute to a band that every metalhead knows and by the end of the piece they should recognize the quotation from which I draw all the musical material from.

"'Shred' is just one example of the classical music aspects that encompass our structural composition. There is also a lot of counterpoint in our music, like the Canon in E minor, which maybe we'll save for a later video."

"Called To Rise" track listing:

01. Oblivion Part 1 The Chant Of Tyrants
02. Black Veils Of Justice
03. Between Suns Of Light
04. Binary Souls
05. Reclamation
06. Canon 1 In E Minor
07. Annunaki
08. Reigns In Fire
09. Cancer Of Wraiths
10. Multiverse
11. Oblivion Part 2 Infinite Descent
12. Black Veils Of Justice (instrumental version)
13. Shred I. Multiverse (string orchestra)
14. Shred II. Long Deaf Hate (string orchestra)

OBLIVION is:

Nick Vasallo - Vocals
Ben Orum - Bass
Ted O'Neill - Guitar
Victor Dods - Guitar
Luis Martinez - Drums

OBLIVION's video for the song "Reclamation" can be seen below. The special "End Of The World" version of the clip was directed by Brandon Hunt and is the first OBLIVION video to feature the band's two new members: Orum and guitarist Victor Dods (HACKSAW TO THE THROAT).

Orum announced his departure from ALL SHALL PERISH last month, explaining in statement that he "could not fulfill [his] duty as a touring musician any longer" due to the fact that he needed to provide for his family. He added: "While I am done with touring, I will never stop writing music. I am joining the extreme metal band OBLIVION as a bassist and contributing songwriter. We are beyond excited to unleash [our debut album] onto the metal world. I've always been into death metal and extreme music, [and] this is my return to true death metal."