Now Crossover is a very hard genre to get right. To blend Thrash Metal and Punk just right enough with the attitude and energy is quite an accomplishment and it takes quite a bit of skill. Either you make it or you don’t. And unfortunately, OBSCENE GESTURE doesn’t make the cut with their album “Living In Profanity”. 

You would think that with the 21 tracks on this album that even a few would make a cut to be some good solid Crossover but really none of them do. And to add on top of it that, three of the band members come from the underrated AGENT STEEL – this is just really sad. I tried and tried to find some redeeming qualities in this band – but I found almost nothing. 

And the odd thing is about “Living In Profanity” is that no matter how I tried to dissect it, I couldn’t tell if the band wasn’t trying hard enough or trying too hard to be ‘badass’. Poor songwriting techniques and poor production really are the guts of why this album fails on some many levels but on the upfront it’s the very annoying performance of vocalist, Guy Green. His unmusical shouting is somewhat charming on the first track but after 2 or 3 I had a horrible headache. Not to mention the lyrical content is borderline immature most of the time (not that Crossover is known for its deep meaningful content) and the audio clips that appear so often get a tad annoying too. 

Maybe on the few days that I listened to this album - I just wasn't in the Crossover mood, but as a Thrash Metal fan, its bands like OBSCENE GESTURE that I think bring the genre down. Unless you are a die hard Crossover fan – I advise to skip this one.

(Online August 18, 2008)