Extremity Obsession

Perhaps best known as the starting ground for Death Metal drummer extraordinaire, George Kollias (drums – NILE, NIGHTFALL, CEREBRUM, etc.), EXTREMITY OBSESSION is a melodic Death/Thrash Metal band founded in the early 1990s. After a handful of member changes, the band recorded their first demo in 1996, an eight-tracker simply referred to as “Demo Tape 1996” with a lineup consisting of Angel Batsalias (guitars – the only member who’ve been with the group from the beginning up until our current age), George Meletis (bass) and brothers George and Iraklis Kollias on drums/vocals and guitars, respectively. A second demo followed the year after, entitled “Everlasting” (1997) and featuring the same lineup as the debut.

As mentioned above, the band played a melodic brand of Death- and Thrash Metal with a clearly above-average level of technical finesse. Parallels could be drawn to the Gothenburg scene, but EXTREMITY OBSESSION hardly counts as a copy-cat phenomenon. There’s actually quite a lot going on in the tracks, with many twists-and-turns offered throughout the songs, while being catchy at the same time (without sacrificing momentum or power).

Almost twenty years after their first split-up, the band was resuscitated in 2016 by original members Angel Batsalias and Iraklis Kollias, along with bassist Kostas Panourgias and vocalist/guitarist Dan Kafkis – who’d both been members of the group between in the early 1990s – and the Brazilian (?) drummer Alan Marques. During the following years, several changes in the lineup would happen which are not that easy to recount in detail here. However, for the actual recordings taking place, it appears as if the core lineup consisted of the old membership: Angel Batsalias (guitars), Dan Kafkis (vocals, guitars) and Chris Tekas (drums). If we are wrong on this point, please feel free to contact us to sort things out. Anyway, 2018 saw the release of two independently distributed CDs, “Anthropocentric Era” Vol. I & II – both featuring re-recordings of old EXTREMITY OBSESSION material. A two-track digital single entitled “Root of Destruction” followed in 2019 and last years (2020), the band put out a proper full-length album bearing the title “Segment 8”. The sixteen-track listing might sound a bit on the long side, but fifty percent of the songs are actually instrumentals (like PESTILENCE’s “Testimony of the Ancients”!).

In addition to studio-work, the band has performed several live shows throughout the years and are still going strong as far as we know.

Compilation appearances:
* Black Orchid Compilation Tape [Cass, Comp: Black Orchid Productions, 1998]

* Shadows in Silence Compilation Tape Volume 1 - Dancing with the Shadows [Cass, Comp: Self-released, 1998]

* Wrath from Hades #1 [Cass, Comp, Numbered: Black Trip Tapes, 1998]