SOMEWHAT MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION

SOMEWHAT MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION

Bullets

Karen Troupe

Most of us have an obsession. I’m referring, of course, to the normal healthy types of vices like sex, booze, money and other fiendish delights that you can use to wile away the hours. Me? I like to gaze at color photos of Geddy Lee. Gives me a good buzz.

Being that we live in America, a bunch of decent, hard-working guys decided to get together one day and make money out of all this by calling themselves Obsession in the hopes that their music will replace those things we hold dear. Namely, sex and booze. The money you can use to buy their album with. Smart, huh?

Don’t take these men for granted. They have a good sound, and are nothing to be sneezed at. To further reiterate this fact are lead guitarist Bruce Viscera and vocalist Mike Vitale. “We think our music, number one, flows very well. When you listen to the song, that’s the song. There’s not much we would do differently if we had a chance to do it again.

“Number two, we reproduce live what we do in the studio. A lot of the bands, you’ll go see them live and there’s a disappointment. You’re not really hearing the things you hear on the record. So we think we come off well live. There’s not much in the studio to hamper us live. And we’re an energetic band. We like to give a good show when we play.”

Founded in New Haven, Connecticut, a sleepy seaport town, Obsession has been together five years now. They were drawn together through mutual respect and cameraderie, as well as recognizing the need to explore their natural musical talents. Each shares the spotlight equally. “It was a mutual founding,” says Bruce o^f the initial union. “Myself and Jay, our drummer, were introduced by friends (rhythm guitarist) Art Maco and (bass player) Matt Karagos. So it was a mutual finding, rather than one person saying, ‘I’m going to start a band.’”

Their debut EP on Metal Blade Records last year made a big splash in the local L.A. music scene. But it was clear that their music offered more than the ghoulish image depicted on the album cover. Of course, this didn’t bother Metal Blade, since it specializes in so-called “Black Metal” music. It didn’t help that it was a shotgun wedding from the start, with both band and label brought together out of necessity. As time went on, things turned sour, the culmination of which had Obsession shopping for another label.

“We are in no way associated with Metal Blade anymore,” spits Mike. “They were very disillusioned to the fact that we weeded out the songs that would have fit the type of music or the type of fans Metal Blade had in the past. They got the wrong impression of the material we wanted to record and decided they didn’t want to do anything with us. So what we ended up doing was going to the next best thing (Enigma Records).”

This subject seems to reopen old wounds for Bruce, who recounts another aspect of the story with equal animosity.

“Also, the reason we left Metal Blade was because they didn’t want to pay for our recording. They wanted us to self-finance the record, and said they would distribute it. That’s usually what it is with Metal Blade. They give you a press and distribution deal, and unless they really want to put money into something, most of the bands just get their product released and are content with that. We have no real bad feelings towards Metal Blade. We take the position that they screwed themselves, not us.”

So much for the company version of stupid pet tricks. Happily, those times are well behind the band now. They’ve just completed a new album titled Scarred For Life. Both men are in agreement that the differences between this and the EP are noticeable.

“As a case in point, the overall production of this record is light-years better than the EP. It deals with any aspect of being scarred for life. As far as it being a concept album, I think, muses Mike, “if you look hard enough you’ll find a concept. We have a song about the Vietnam experience called ‘Gambling Theme.’ But this and the title track are the only types of concepts as far as I can see.

“We kind of self-produced this one. It will read ‘coproduced by Brian Keane,’ who did the duties on our last album. He served as a sort of production consultant. But we basically did it ourselves.”

It should be noted that these are the most humble men I’ve ever spoken with. Just ask them who they would like to tour with, and they’ll give an answer worthy of a monk.

“IRON MAIDEN!!” See what I mean?

As a final note, their opinions about thrash:

“As far as thrash goes: if it's tight thrash that’s one thing, but there are so many bands that are untight, it’s sort of ridiculous trying to listen to.”

“We saw Megadeth,” Mike chimes in, “and that’s not tight thrash. Now, Metallica... there’s a difference. Not that much, but there’s a difference.”

Forgot to ask them if they know about the perfume called Obsession. As my good friend and colleague DP would have pointed out, it could have been worse. They could have named themselves Tabu.