Opera Multi Steel – Stella Obscura (Vinyl Album – Wave Records)
Genre/Influences: Gothic, dark-wave.
Background/Info: “Stella Obscura” was the fourth full length released by the French ‘cult’ band Opera Multi Steel. The original version, released in 1992 on the band’s own label, Orcadia Machina, featured 17 songs. This vinyl version with a new artwork is only featuring 9 songs from the tracklist although there’s a limited vinyl edition featuring a silver disc with a bonus CD where you can listen to all the songs.
Content: The work sounds in the typical and rather unique of OMS. The style rapidly appears to be a crossover between different influences, which we can easily resume as gothic, new/dark-wave and folk. The song writing is sophisticated and still delicate while you still can notice a late 80s influence. The songs are sung in French (with the exception of one track sung in Latin language). The last song “Memorias De Vigo” is driven by Eastern-like influences, being a little less atypical for the band.
+ + + : Opera Multi Steel stands for sweet melancholia and dark poetry. This is exactly what this work is all about. This album brings the intimate sphere created by the band alive. It’s a delicious merge between electronics and authentic instruments. It’s an intelligent composition revealing some of the band’s finest tracks. The already mentioned “Memorias De Vigo” remains a real great cut.
– – – : The songs are pretty similar although revealing this typical sound the band became famous with. It’s a bit strange to get a vinyl format featuring only 9 tracks. A double vinyl might have been a better idea.
Conclusion: This vinyl format will bring you back in time. It definitely is a collector’s item for the band’s fanbase.
Best songs: “Memorias De Vigo”, “Spacio Astro”, “Tes Lèvres, Un Abat-Son”, “Les Martyrs”.
Rate: (7).
Artist: www.facebook.com/tanlan.oms17
Label: www.waverecordsmusic.com / www.facebook.com/waverecords
About Opera Multi Steel
Opera Multi Steel formed in Bourges, France, during the winter of 1982-1983, with founding members Franck Lopez, Patrick L. Robin and Catherine Marie. The project mixes coldwave, minimal wave and synthpop with medieval and Renaissance references across its music, lyrics and visual presentation, and its earliest recordings circulated on cassette before the band moved to vinyl and CD. The debut album, “Cathédrale,” followed in 1985 on the band’s own label, with “Les Douleurs De L’Ennui” (1990) and “Stella Obscura” (1992) continuing the catalogue.
“Stella Obscura,” reviewed here in this vinyl reissue, was the band’s fourth album, originally released in 1992 on the band’s own Orcadia Machina label with 17 tracks; the new vinyl edition trims the tracklist to nine songs, with a limited silver-disc version adding a bonus CD carrying the complete original sequence. Opera Multi Steel went on to release “Apparences De L’Invisible” (2014), “D’Une Pierre Deux Tombes” (2021) and “Les Passions Tristes” (2023), and in 2026 Wave Records reissued “Les Douleurs De L’Ennui” as a remastered 35th-anniversary edition.
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