Obscura is the third full-length album by Canadian death metal band Gorguts. The album was released on June 23, 1998 through the now-defunct Olympic Recordings, but has since been reissued by a number of labels, in particular Century Media in 2015. Since its release, Obscura has come to be regarded as one of the most important albums in the technical death metal genre, and as "one of the most complex and technical records in the genre, due to its unprecedented dissonance and experimentation brought by the band's late guitarist Steeve Hurdle." Lyrically, the album represents a further departure from the band's established approach, touching on spiritual and existential themes. Luc Lemay has described the album as "the record that defined our sound." History Following the release in 1993 of their second full-length The Erosion of Sanity, the band took part in a European tour with Blasphemy. The band's return coincided with the decline of death metal's popularity, and they were subsequently dropped from the Roadrunner roster. Following their departure from the label, they "started writing material for Obscura". Gorguts also lost both their drummer and guitarist, who simply left the band. They were replaced by 'Purulence' guitarist Steeve Hurdle and 'Psychic Throb' bassist Steve Cloutier. The album was actually almost entirely written by the end of 1993, however it was delayed by a lack of label interest, and wasn't released until 1998. Writing began in April 1993 and was almost complete by late December of the same year. "We jammed these songs for four years without writing anything else in hopes that someone would call us or something. I remember I sent some tapes to record labels and they didn't even write back. They were not even interested. We didn't know it was ever going to come out." Musical style Obscura represented a significant change in sound for the band, and has been described as moving towards "more complex and groundbreaking musical ideas." The album "is considered to be one of the most complex and technical records in the genre, due to its unprecedented dissonance and experimentation brought by the band's late guitarist Steeve Hurdle." The album makes use of complex song structures, unorthodox sounds, dissonant guitarwork, unconventional time signatures, and esoteric lyrical themes. AllMusic's William York wrote that "The guitar/bass harmonies are extremely discordant, the guitar leads are full of alien harmonic squeals and other foreign noises (the title