Customer Reviews

Stuck Here on Snakes Way

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This has been one of my most anticipated albums. i have been a fan of omnium gatherum sinse their debut.

well what to say about "stuck here on snakes way"
its a solid album, and has quite a few good songs, i'd say its just a bit below their previous album "years in waste" i was expecting a bit more from this album. its good but i know they could do better. it just is not as good as their great debut "spirits and august light". never the less. its still a good album. they still have "their sound", and this album also is the debut of their new vocalist (jukka pelkonen).
here is a song by song review,

1. The snake and the way (5/5), this track is and intro into the album. its a very beautiful acousic opening for the album.

2. Into Sea (5/5), This song is classic og! awsome intense fast pased song. Great guitar leads too!

3. Dysnomia (3/5), this song i thought was good. but something was missing from it. has great potental but really does not go no where.

4. A Part Of God (4/5) once again classic og style. great heavy song.

5. Undertaker (3/5) this song is cool. its very dark and very heavy. but once again i thought it had more potental.

6. Bastard-O (4/5) i like this song . great riffs, its short but intense

7. The third flame (5/5) one of the highlights of the album! great damn song. intense, heavy, great guitar leads! and cool melodic harmonies. love this song.

8. just signs (5/5) really cool mellow song. and has clean vocals on it. cool peice.

9. The Truth (2/5) starts off with a very good riff but goes no where. i did not like this song much. to repetitive for me.

10. drudgery (5/5) possibly the best song on the album!! great damn song. very intense. has some great playing on it. possibly one of their best songs yet!

11. In Sane World (5/5) Another song in classic og style. really cool heavy tune.

12. spiritual (5/5) this song is a bit defferent from the usual og, but its great. really strong guitar lines. good song

so all in all its a good album. might not be their best album as a whole (which is why it gets 3 stars) but it will defidently attract lots of fans. so give it a shot its a good album.

The death metal vocals really sound out of place to the music... some of the music is right in line with In Flames' older stuff, but he's got a deep, sinister growl that sounds out of place with it... and he's way too monotone, I don't get any emotion out of him, again counteracting the incredibly powerful and intricate riffs. Music gets 5/5 but the vocals maybe 3/5.

When I heard this band for the first time on their first album, I was overjoyed to have found such a unique sounding melodic/thrash/death band mixture. They were pretty inventive for being newcomers in the scene. They have continued to do that on this album, but while they have extremely great riffs in most of theirs songs, they also are prone to throwing in ones that borderline on way too generic, namely overly simple chord progressions that wore out their welcome 20 years ago. I don't quite understand how they could have such impecible taste one moment with extremely original music and then drive into a sad 2 chord progression riff that is not strong enough to withstand the amount of times they repeat it. I feel like they still have yet to make their masterpiece, but I also believe their first album is better than the two following (including this one). I would recommend their debut "spirits and august light" over this one as the balance of excellent moments to bland are tipped more towards the former. But this is still worth listening to if you are a fan of this genre of music, it's definitely better than 90% of the junk cluttering up the metal shelves.

One other note would be that they have a new vocalist on this album that I don't really care for very much for although I never really was all that hot for the first one either. Neither of them have been able to live up to the rest of the bands flashes of brilliance, but I do believe that their original vocalist was a tad bit better.

A combination of melodic sections driven by keyboards and clean soloing and straight-ahead thrash, Omnium Gatherum run the gamut of metal. The first full track ""Into Sea"" covers all of the ground that the band claims to pay homage to in their bio: At the Gates, Katatonia, Death and even Judas Priest. You can hear the vintage tone in the riffing.

The band uses some electronic elements (the breakdown in ""Into Sea,"" the opening to ""Dysnomia"") while staying true to their death metal roots. You have to appreciate the dynamics in the way the songs are structured, some driven by the keyboard, others by riffing and still others, a great combination of the two! There are actually sections of songs that remind me of Devin Townsend while others go into straight thrash and death. There are too many highlights to even mention them all! Each song does something that would need to be mentioned in the review.

Incredible solo's, monster riffs, wicked keyboard atmosphere and some interesting electronic elements make this album a must hear for any fan of melodic death metal! The only detraction on this album is the vocals. While guttural, barking vocals are acceptable within the genre... these are just not very good. To be fair though, any fan of the genre will easily see past them as the music is excellent and worthy of attention. I can't stress enough how good the solos are on this disc. This is yet another consideration for album of the year!

For Fans of: At The Gates, Death and Insomnium

this is crap compared to their last. Where's the emotion? The passion the intensity? This album is extremely predictable and way to overproduced for my taste. Nothing special about them here.