Cynabare Urne is likely one of the more cunning names in recent death metal memory. Now, silly Americans (yes, that’s us) are likely to immediately associate the Finns’ moniker with Cinnabon (Bakery), but we’re slightly below-brow anyway. But the word ‘cynabare’ (also ‘cinnabar’) stems from the reddish color (oxidized mercury) used in pigments (called ‘vermilion’), to paint everything from temples (Mayans), ritual masks (Inca), bones (neolithic Anatolian peoples), and statues (Greeks). The deep-red color obviously (if not obviously, look it up!) resembled the color of blood, and as such was prized to represent life (or death). History lessons aside, Cynabare Urne’s name therefore can be likened to “blood-colored urn,” but their death metal, steeped in the genre’s past, is less about blood and more about breaking bone and battering the disbeliever.
Formed in 2014 out of members (and ex-members) of Colosseum, Horizon of the Mute and Black Crucifixion, Cynabare Urne brutalized two EPs (Fire the Torches and In the Cremation Ground, respectively) before going on a multi-year writing (and grave-digging) binge to realize a full-length’s worth of bloodthirsty death metal. That full-length arrives shortly and menacingly in the form of Obsidian Daggers and Cinnabar Skulls on Regain vanity label Helter Skelter Productions. Across 10 tracks, the Finns batter, bruise, break, and blood-let in tried and true fashion. This is death metal for those who genuflect at the sacrificial altars of Runemagick, Sonne Adam, and the mighty Necros Christos.
Say Cynabare Urne: “We have been working on Obsidian Daggers and Cinnabar Skulls album since the day one. One of the first songs that we wrote in 2014 was ‘Escaping Xibalba,’ which also features the lyrical line that was destined to be the title of this album. Like on our previous EP releases, lyrical themes are focusing on global death rite traditions, dark folklore and hermetic alchemy. Our music is dark and heavy death metal.”
Decibel, Helter Skelter, and Cynabare Urne are dead to rites chuffed as grinning week-old corpses to premiere Obsidian Daggers and Cinnabar Skulls. Only Finnish death metal is real!
