This year, self-described ‘adult oriented melodic death metal’ band Omnium Gatherum reach their 20th anniversary and the Finns have marked that impressive milestone by making their most ambitious album to date.
Continuing the creative strides made on 2013’s critically acclaimed Beyond, Grey Heavens expands on their progressive and AOR influences (Frontiers, These Grey Heavens) and experiments with more synth-based sound-scapes (Majesty And Silence), while retaining their trademark duelling lead guitars and heavier-than-Mjolnir riffing (The Pit).
Their stitching together of genres doesn’t always pay off – case in point being the Jean Michel Jarre-esque keyboards on Storm Front, which sound disjointed when placed alongside more traditional death metal passages – but when the six-piece get the balance right they’re on world-beating form.
Foundation is a hugely satisfying, potentially mainstream-bothering goth-metal mash-up, weird but wonderful The Great Liberation is a fun fusion of 80s action flick soundtrack and buzzsaw riffing and Skyline is a neck-bothering 90s-era Metallica-indebted stomper.
