Clearly influenced by the latter half of Swedish death metal and Norwegian black metal, Towards Obscurities Beyond keeps itself grounded in American-style relentless death metal, with its churning tremolo riffs interrupted by atmospheric melodic riffs to great effect.

Unlike most of the bands attempting to relive the past, Transcendence displays a sense of patience, knowing how to break tempo and change up riffs merely to build tension, so that despite these songs following the Unanimated or Necrophobic style of verse-chorus with breaks, each song carries its own mood.

If anything, this band would do well to lessen the reliance on vocals. Their riff-writing shows an ability to pull in influences as wide-ranging as Eucharist and Therion yet keep a voice of their own, and this collection of distinctive songs carves out its own semi-mystical and darkly mysterious atmosphere.

Tags: death metal, Transcendence