Obsidian Tongue

Obsidian Tongue strives to preserve the passion and intensity of the quintessential Black Metal bands such as Darkthrone, Enslaved and Immortal, while manifesting their personal vision of the musical style and what it could convey. Obstaining from any religious or political lyrical themes, the music is deeply introspective and the lyrics focus on "The Inner Universe." However, several of their songs are dedications to the Natural world, and the cold of Winter.
When asked to describe what separates their music from other black metal bands, guitarist/vocalist Brendan Hayter had this to say: "If I were to explain how we were different from most Black Metal bands, I'd say an important fact is that we are very positive people, and we don't adhere to any sort of nihilism or promote any type of violence. I respect musicians' use of these subjects to justify the depth of their music and to evoke their own personal energies, and I respect everyone's personal ideologies, but these things do not drive us to play our music. We have a similar affinity for darkness and death, but our interest lies in evolution, and emotional alchemy."
After recording a full-length album alone with a 4-track and minimal equipment, Brendan realized then that the music did not reach its potential in a strictly-recording, one-man-band context. The music needed to be played live, both in concert and on tape. This entire recording was scrapped and drummer Greg Murphy became involved with the project in November of 2009. When they performed live for the first time in April of 2010, Obsidian Tongue was fully conceived. They call their live shows "Shadow Rituals," referring to the "Shadow World" within the human psyche that they say all of their songs and lyrics come from. Live performance is purely essential to the band and they will play as often as possible as they prepare to re-record the long-awaited full-length Subradiant Architecture.