Last week, the tech-metal world has been thrown for a loop by the announcement that Obscura’s drummer Hannes Grossman and guitarist Christian Muenzer had exited the band. Now we know why. The duo have joined up with another former member of Obscura, bassist Linus Klausenitzer in a band called Alkaloid. The band is filled out by guitarist Danny Tunker of Aborted and signer/guitarist Florian Magnus Maier of Noneuclid. The band are currently recording their debut album, which should be out in early 2015. Here’s what Grossman says about the new project:
“As sad as things have turned out with Obscura, I’m really happy that the songs Christian Muenzner and I had initially written for their next record will find a new home in Alkaloid. However, I don’t see Alkaloid as a “tech-death” band, because we just aren’t. The music is definitely prog, but in terms of dynamics, song structures, harmonics and rhythms, it’s just too diverse to be put into a small sub-genre.
The band was brought to life in 2012 by myself and Florian Magnus Maier, who is by far the best composer I ever worked with. His band Noneuclid had a big impact on the last Obscura record ‘Omnivium’, on which I contributed the vast majority of the music and arranged all the songs. Generally this is the sort of music we would like to continue with Alkaloid, but make it sound more colorful, more vibrant and way catchier. I’m also happy to have some of my dearest friends on board, such as Christian Muenzner – we make music together for more than 10 years- and Florian Magnus Maier, who is one of my favorite bass players and did a great job on my solo record “The Radial Covenant”. Last but not least, we have Danny Tunker as third guitar player, who is just one of the best players I’ve ever seen. Once we toured with him – he was playing for Spawn Of Possession – I saw him learning two Obscura songs in about an hour, playing them flawless. Never seen a talent like him before.”
That Muenzer is in the band is a little odd, given that it somewhat contradicts his statement about leaving Obscura, in which he stated that he had a neurological condition in his fretting hand, Focal Dystonia, which he’s recovered from, but didn’t want to tour behind. So either the new material in Alkaloid will be a lot less technical, the other two guitarists will handle a lot of the work or he won’t be touring with the band.
