Oregon’s Omnihility burst onto the scene in 2014 with their second record (their Unique Leader debut), Deathscapes of the Subconscious , a pretty damn solid tech death offering with a heavy Origin lean. Well, yet another line up shuffle (as with the debut Biogenesis to Deathscapes), this time adding bassist Isamo Satu and vocalist Adam Toepfer. Though admittedly, I doubt you could tell if you played Deathscapes and Dominion side by side.
The gravity blast filled, noodly, sweepy Origin stylings and themes are still present (just listen to “Immaculate Deception”), but the skill of the players makes it more than impressive. The band’s tightness and delivery is certainly as good as any brutal/tech death out there, especially drummer Steve Crum, and the band seems to even added a little pacing and restraint here and there making the album even more memorable, and not just a vortex of speed.
Yeah, the bulk of the album is sheer, Origin hyper speed such as “Psychotic Annihilation”, “Dementia Praedox”, or “Parasitic Existence” and very well done , but occasionally the band get into a more controlled, Floridian death metal mode like “Dead Eden”, “Reflections of Blood” or ‘Necrotic Consumption” or even an atmospheric track (“Within Shadows”). These show little more development of the band and closer “The Meaning of Misery” cements this with a melodic, instrumental number that I didn’t see coming at all.
That said, the album comes with many tropes of the style, being very clicky and clinical especially the snare drum, though it’s not Visceral Throne bad. So if that sort sterile sound isn’t your thing, Omnihility won’t have much appeal, and I might recommend the new Obscura album. But if you are a fan of pretty much every Unique Leader release over the last few years, this is right up there with some of the better ones and one of 2016s early better brutal/tech death releases.
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I REALLY like and own their last 2, but this one I’m still not sure about. That intro is AAWWWFFUULLL… I was like come on guys who thought this was a good artistic decision?
on Mar 10th, 2016 at 18:46I’ll write my review soon for aatruk. Nice review as always Erik. Everything is so fuckin triggered and the drums sound computerized. How brutal can death metal get?? I mean when it all sounds processed I have a difficult time discerning what’s actually being played. I still crank the shit out of this because I still enjoy this style very much, but I’d really like to see this band live to see if they could pull off the gravity blasts. Album cover of the year, thus far. Incredible
on Mar 12th, 2016 at 09:54