Ukraine’s OBRIJ confronts Stalin-era crimes on brutal new album “Joseph”

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Obrij had already seen the writing on the wall. The signs were there—the revival of Stalin’s cult, the glorification of imperialist nostalgia, the slow erasure of memory. “Joseph” is not just their first full-length album—coming up 1,5 years after their impactful EP “Empire Of Scum”, it’s a brutal, unfiltered reckoning with one of history’s bloodiest regimes. Eight tracks, each a different chapter in the horrors of Stalin’s reign, a timeline of famine, repression, forced labor, and genocide. It’s history told through metallic hardcore-infused death metal, raw and punishing. The Weight of History Obrij, formed