Review of The Diabolic Obsession - Tier Drama
Occult horror metal is hardly a new idea in Italy. The country has been producing strange, sinister and occasionally downright bizarre metal for decades, and The Diabolic Obsession comes from somewhere in that tradition. What makes Tier Drama interesting is that its creator has actually been away from recorded music for almost thirty years. This isn't a young band trying to look ancient. It's a one-man project returning after a very long silence.
The man behind it remains anonymous, although his history goes back to the Italian extreme-metal underground of the 1990s, including a period with Mortuary Drape and the early development of The Magik Way. None of that seems to be used as a shortcut here. Tier Drama has its own set of obsessions: failed rituals, possession, manipulation, religious fanaticism and people gradually losing control of themselves.
There are only four songs, but they are properly written songs rather than bits of horror ambience joined together. The guitars carry most of the music, the bass is unusually prominent and the drums are programmed. Synths turn up in the background, adding some colour without taking over. The vocals are harsh, somewhere between screams and growls, but they remain clear enough to follow the stories.
“The Red House” is the best place to start. A woman enters an abandoned house and becomes involved in a corrupted Gnostic mass, with the ritual eventually turning her own loss of control into something she accepts as liberation. The story comes from the legends surrounding Villa De Vecchi in Bindo, and the music has a suitably nasty horror-metal character without becoming theatrical for the sake of it.
The song is also where Andy LaRocque appears as a guest guitarist. His solo is quite different from the uglier parts of the track, with a more melancholy quality to it. It works surprisingly well.
“Adeline” is probably the heaviest track here. The bass really comes forward, giving the riffing a thick, almost dirty feel. The story is worse. A woman becomes the victim of a voodoo ritual performed by a bokor and eventually starts confusing control with protection. Even his death doesn't free her. By then the whole thing has become part of her.
“Mother Rasputin” goes back to religious horror, this time around an Orthodox abbess who turns superstition and faith into a personal cult. The riffing has some of that old King Diamond feeling, although the song isn't trying to sound like a lost 1980s recording. It's one of the catchier pieces on the EP, which is slightly strange considering what the lyrics are about.
Then comes “Testament In Decay”, loosely based on a short story by Aleister Crowley. The original perspective has been reversed, and the whole thing ends up feeling like a religious and moral structure rotting from the inside. It is probably the darkest track of the four, and a good choice for the ending.
There are plenty of things here that point back to older Italian occult and horror metal, but Tier Drama isn't simply a Mortuary Drape-style throwback. You can also hear classic horror metal, darker extreme metal and some less obvious influence from old dark music. The synths help with that, particularly because they are used as an extra layer rather than the main attraction.
The production gives the bass enough room to matter, which is something plenty of metal records still get wrong. The guitars have the weight they need, while the vocals don't disappear behind them. The programmed drums are probably the least interesting element simply because there is only so much personality you can get from programmed percussion, but they do the job.
The anonymous presentation makes sense with the material. There is no face, no personal mythology and no attempt to turn the person behind the project into the star. Even the video for “The Red House” follows that approach. It was filmed in an abandoned church and extends the story of the song rather than showing the usual band performance.
The main limitation is simple: four songs aren't much. By the time Tier Drama really gets going, it's already over. The material is strong enough to make a full-length worth hearing, particularly if the next step brings more variation in the songwriting without losing the directness of these tracks.
For something that arrives after nearly three decades away, Tier Drama is a strange but convincing comeback. It doesn't sound like an old musician trying to prove that he still remembers how to play. There is no attempt to recreate a particular year or scene either. Just four horror-metal songs, some genuinely good riffs, a nasty set of stories and enough personality to make The Diabolic Obsession worth keeping an eye on.
▶︎ Tier Drama | The Diabolic Obsession
.jpg "(c) Massimo Pozza")
Photo by Massimo Pozza.