Trivia / Obscura

• Creative Differences: Grossmann and Geldschlaeger left over this. Grossmann wrote most of Omnivium and had essentially become the main driving force of the band, and during the writing sessions for Akroasis, Kummerer (who had apparently gone along with it before this point) suddenly decided that he wasn't okay with this and chucked a bunch of Grossmann's songs off of the album; things only got worse from there and led Grossmann to make his exit. Geldschlaeger, meanwhile, made it clear while voicing his displeasure with the band's failure to publicly credit him for his own contributions to Akroasis that the behavior on display was not new and that his departure had everything to do with Kummerer as a person. Comments from Muenzner have also indicated that he left for the same reasons and that the focal dystonia was just the politically correct version of his departure, though his return to the band indicates that the two have settled their differences. Later stated almost word for word in 2020 when Trujillo, Klausenitzer, and Lanser left, with similar implications based on the band's history.
• Sleeper Hit: Cosmogenesis, apparently. The lineup for that album came together with no real expectations of major success, and while Muenzner, Thesseling, and Grossmann were from fairly prestigious acts, they had no clue if they would be able to make lightning strike twice, or if people would give them the time of day and little else. While being on Relapse definitely helped, they knew that it would be a gamble either way, and the general mood of the band circa Cosmogenesis was definitely "knock on wood and hope people care". Instead of a modest success, the album rapidly took off, and they very quickly found themselves growing into a huge name that set the stage for the 2010s tech boom (and influenced many of those acts) in a way that only The Faceless (who were viewed as the next big thing in tech at the time that Cosmogenesis was released) could match. In short, Cosmogenesis wound up being a watershed release beyond what any of them could have reasonably expected.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Danny Tunker was originally asked to join after Muenzner and Grossmann left. As their longtime guitar tech, he was an easy choice, but he was buddies with Muenzner and Grossmann, and the bad blood that existed between Kummerer and Grossmann (as well as Muenzner) would have made things far too awkward for his liking. The fact that he was happy with his position in Aborted at the time also contributed to his decision to turn it down, as he would not have been able to juggle both bands.
  • Hannes had at least several albums' worth of material already written for Akroasis and beyond. While many of them made it onto The Radial Covenant and at least two made it into Alkaloid (while "From a Hadron Machinist" and "The Malkuth Grimoire" both have original parts, they have at least some unused Obscura material; additionally, Muenzner's song "Alter Magnitudes" was also meant for Obscura before it was repurposed for Alkaloid), he has various others that were never used ("Imaginative Soul", which they were playing live shortly before he left, and potentially "House of Life", an unreleased track that was recorded for the first Alkaloid album that had a very Obscura-esque sound, and he and his associates have told fans that he has other songs out there in the ether).

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