Obsidian

Inventory

Between December 2001 and June 2004, Obsidian published 9 articles in R4NT magazine — a prolific run during the publication's formative years. The login reads as a pseudonym, matching a pattern among early R4NT writers who adopted opaque handles. The corpus refresh didn't surface any additional pieces; nine remains the canonical count.

Voice

Conversational, colloquial — direct, profane when warranted, self-aware. Prose favors first-person observation ("I'll admit right now that I'm a huge Transformers fan"; "How mundane can things get?"). Consistent candor about subjective taste and a willingness to contradict perceived consensus. The tone oscillates between critic and essayist: structured product analysis (games, music, film) alternates with rambling, personal reflection on relationships and ambition. The personal essays edge into rant — the post-university piece spends its first paragraph imagining a graduate stumbling drunk across the stage to shake the hand of "some guy you've never met while another guy mispronounces your name" — and the criticism keeps the same pulse, just pointed at a Black Label Society guitar tone or an Xmen 2 ensemble cast.

Topic mix

Divides cleanly: six entertainment reviews (two video games, three music albums, one film) and three personal essays on social friction. Gaming and music criticism dominate 2004 and 2002; interpersonal themes cluster in 2001–2003. The earliest piece, Uneven Field (Dec 2001), interrogates dating asymmetry. By 2004, Obsidian had settled into rapid-fire reviews — two released the same day (Prince and Transformers, June 1). The music reviews show the most range: Black Label Society's stoner-metal grit, Jim Byrnes's Highlander-blues mellow, and Prince's late-period tinkering all get the same close, technically literate listen.

Evolution

• 2001–2002 (vulnerability years): Uneven Field, Post University "Life", and Communication is Key — three essays in a row about systems failing the person inside them (dating, the job market, family silence).
• 2002 (genre warm-up): the FIFA piece (politely confused by soccer) and the Black Label Society review introduce the critic mode — strong opinions, strong frame of reference, willing to let an album sit beside a personal anecdote about drowning out a partner's nagging.
• 2003–2004 (assured criticism): the Xmen 2 review, the Jim Byrnes blues record, the Prince LP, and the Transformers PS2 deep-dive — increasingly tighter capsules with sharper technical reads. The personal-essay voice retreats but never disappears.

Standout pieces

1. Transformers (PS2) — Deep dive into game design: Minicon system, level design, learning curve. Honest about difficulty while defending the source material.
2. Prince — Musicology — Balances fandom with critique, diagnosing where Prince's eccentricity helps or hinders. The complaint about disc auto-play is vintage nerd.
3. X-Men 2 — Ensemble filmmaking analysis with respect for comic lore. Praises restraint and character moments alongside spectacle.
4. Communication is Key — Short, potent essay on unspoken resentment in families and romance. The lost friendship here resonates more than most R4NT personal writing.
5. Uneven Field — Opening salvo on dating inequality and risk asymmetry. Provocative, earnest, distinctly Obsidian in its blend of complaint and logical argument.
6. Post University "Life" — The most quotable rant in the run. The opening graduation paragraph is small-press gold; the rest is a working-twenty-something manifesto wrapped in profanity.
7. Black Label Society — 1919 Eternal — Zakk Wylde appreciation that doubles as a Down to Earth-era Ozzy think-piece. The "cigarette-crusted trailerpark voice" line is the kind of metal-crit phrase you keep.
8. Jim Byrnes — Fresh Horses — A surprising blues capsule from a writer mostly built for metal and game systems. Demonstrates the listener-first ethic: he buys the album because he liked the songs on Highlander, then writes a careful, modest review.

Throughlines

Risk, inequality, and unmet expectations recur. Obsidian notes when systems fail to deliver; praises when craft or honesty surprises. A thread of Canadian preference runs through (hockey love, post-university boredom, polite confusion at FIFA fervor). Reviews often circle back to authenticity: does the creator commit to their vision, or phone it in? The personal essays ask the same question of relationships and institutions.

Fun details

• Despite pseudonymity and critical distance, Obsidian never hides feeling. The personal essays read like unfiltered diary entries.
• His ear for guitar tone is genuinely good — the Black Label Society review tracks the production arc across three albums and Wylde's playing through Ozzy's Down to Earth.
• The Prince auto-play complaint is one of the more dated R4NT artifacts in the archive, and also one of the most charming — a writer mad at a CD for spinning up too eagerly in his computer's drive.
• The vulnerability — rare in early R4NT — anchors the voice and explains why Communication is Key and Uneven Field linger.

The arc

Nine pieces across thirty months is a tight, complete shape. Obsidian arrives with confessional essays, finds his footing in genre criticism, and exits in mid-2004 with a same-day Prince/Transformers double-feature that reads like a small victory lap. The pseudonym held, the voice stayed honest, and the early R4NT archive is meaningfully warmer for the contribution.