"Point of Infinity" mirrors a sense of disappointment, similar to biting into an onion-filled cheeseburger after specifically telling the stupid bastards that made your food to not put onions on your cheeseburger. Unfortunately for Obsidian, the technical madness and infatuating talent that the band members clearly have doesn't do a damn thing for their song writing abilities, which dwindle to an aggravating point of useless time signatures and colorless complexities. Odd riffs played at odder rhythms signed and dated by Meshuggah and prog-doused passages one could associate with Cynic are the record's focal points, yet "Point of Infinity" maintains a cohesive edge of frenzied death metal between Obsidian's cornucopia of techniques. Sadly, these techniques are quickly sharpened down to boring fiascos.There honestly isn't much to trigger a negative reaction when popping your Obsidian cherry; in fact, the band seems to have their s*** in order. Obsidian immediately throws out a schizoid animal violently twitching around called "Illuminate," heaving electrified riffs that corkscrew in mathematical algorithms and dazzling rhythms capable of frying one's frontal cortex. Amazingly, the band finds space to throw in clean vocals and prog-inspired interludes between the unearthly beating; it's quite the killer tune overall. Things go down hill from here, and to an unpleasant degree. These ideas are rehashed and rearranged sloppily, and soon the riffs and patterns become entirely bent on technicality and prog-covered flashiness, leaving the memorable aspects of "Illuminate" in the dust. Obsidian gladly justifies their progressive death metal label, but they make it very dry and unoriginal through the instability of their music.
I'm basically saying Obsidian's general talent shies from the faction's universal blandness, which unfortunately becomes the ubiquitous theme. While the music itself isn't necessarily terrible, there's no life or meaning in the mashing of sounds, and that's a fatal blow as far as I'm concerned. The vocals are about what you'd expect: deep, guttural growls and clean singing. Both are pretty useless to the overall picture, just appealing to the basic norms of the progressive death metal blueprint. "Point of Infinity" occasionally turns itself around, specifically during the opening number and the closing "Spectral Pathways," which is actually a neat slice of Obsidian's bravado. Everything else may be in an all-absorbing vacuum based on the lack of zest, as much as I hate to say so.
I can't see why you'd want to pick this up, even if you enjoy bands like Cynic, Augury, or maybe Atheist and Meshuaggah. There really is nothing original or powerful regarding the direction of "Point of Infinity." The album may have some appeal insofar as it is a display of rhythmic and technical value, but I still wouldn't care if this vanished into the clouds, never to be seen again. The musical edge is so estranged and careless that it clearly does little to justify the talents and abilities of Obsidian's members, so please, gather your things and harvest elsewhere; you'll be quite disappointed otherwise.