Northern Ireland’s brutal death metal bastards, Oncology return with their sophomore album- Omniversal Antigenesis.  I really enjoyed their 2016 debut Infinite Regress and really loved that album cover.  Oncology play a no frills, no holds barred, Hulk Hogan, type of atomic leg drop brutal death metal, more blast beats than holes in your underwear.  No drum machine this time around as Doru Florin is the drummer, along with Geoff Bradley on vocals and Connor Brown on guitars and bass.

9 songs in 29 minutes-the perfect amount of time for this style of brutality.  “Expulsion into the Human Psyche” starts as an intro before the brutal beatdown riff timed perfectly to the double bass comes out the speakers.  Massive TAF (triggered as fuck) double bass, then the blast beat comes in and you will notice plenty of 90’s era American death metal pinch harmonics thrown in.

“Celestial Ruination” is up next with a super-fast blast beat and the drum sound having a Visceral Throne style to sound and how it pops.  More pinch harmonics, blasts and gutturals.  Vocal style will have a bit of Gorgasm/Devourment homage-throaty, deep and guttural.  I noticed some gravity blasting as well.  Towards the end of the song called to mind Braindrill and that carries over to “Ravagers of Synaptic Cruelty”.  Monster gravity blasts, pinch harmonics and then some double pounding moments with slow riff over it.  The song slows down a bit with some breee style vocals and the drums getting slow.  The pinch harmonic comes in and then right into the blast beat.  The title track, “Omniversal Antigenesis” gets things started with some brutal blast beats and plenty of 90’s era pinch harmonics.  Vocals are especially angry during this song.  Some well placed growls too-I really like those moments and this song is fast through and through.

“Moscovium” may be the most brutal song here.  Massive heavy guitar riffing and more of that slower riffing over the blast, which carries over, briefly into the slower part of the song, then right off to the races with more of the non-stop blasting. Nice bass guitar work as well, I caught the bass trying to rear its ugly head here and there.  Crazy gravity-blasting at the end-how in the world is his hands not falling off?

So really Oncology’s Omniversal Antigenesis is pretty much non-stop full throttle blasting brutality.  I would like to have that snare have a bit more bass to it, so it’s not so tinny and this pop type of snare sound has never been my favorite sound.  Has nothing to do with the drummer’s ability at all, he is quite good, but when those blasts get turned up all the time, to me it gets to be sound overkill.  I love squealing pinch harmonics quite a lot, but they get a tad much on this-they are literally all over the place slicing and dicing through eardrums.  Remember-to use to greatest effect is sometimes a less is more approach will have a greater impact.  The album cover is excellent.  It really goes with today’s world collapsing type of shit.

Fans of Gorgasm and Origin take heed and get this today.  Like Oncology’s FB page, pick up some merch and support them.

[Visit the band's website]

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