Omen Astra – The End of Everything
Release Date: 19th May 2023
Label: Hypaethral Records (Canada), Protagonist Music (US), and Moment Of Collapse (Europe).
Bandcamp
Genre: Post-Metal, Groove Metal.
FFO: Gojira, The Ocean, Cult of Luna.
Review By: Andy Spoon
It’s absolutely clear that slowness is a key element of the heavy, crushing atmosphere that Omen Astra is trying to create in its product. From the very beginning, the pace is (seemingly) slightly confusing, as it’s just crawling along, but with growly, ugly guitar fuzz and wild amounts of bass braying at the listener. The hit points of the groove are isolated and loud, giving the listener something to headbang to, but seem to bridge the gap between doom and extreme metal. I cautiously like to think of this as post-extreme, if there is such a thing. However, the reason we’re here is to expand our horizons and hop-scotch genres, which bring us to The End of Everything.
When I was in high school, I spent years digging into the Nu Metal scene, always trying to come up with the nastiest, most hateful and angry music. One of the bands that I loved was Dry Kill Logic. When listening to the track False Gods, it was like I was right back in Gilbert, Arizona, sitting outside the high school classrooms with my duct-taped RCA walkman clone at full blast. There’s a fury that comes through the throaty howl of vocalist Christopher Gray’s delivery. There are moments where it seems that the Dry Kill Logic is seeping out. Nevertheless, that track is absolutely filthy in reference to energy output. The early Gojira influence is also abundantly clear, as the angst and grit is palpable.
I am definitely not wanting to classify this in the same range as “nu metal”, almost as it’s become a pejorative. It’s like a blend of nu metal and post-extreme on a lot of the tracks. There are spoken work segments, like on Who’s Been Painting my Roses Red, where Gray goes into a short vamp in sing-talk, but definitely not making an attempt to rap, per se. This is something that would be used to differentiate this from the more modern Nu Metal offerings. The End of Everything tends to cling onto the more extreme influences, but gives me a lot of the nostalgia I’ve looked for over many years. It’s almost like how Nightwish has taken over where Evanescence fell off the map, musically.
This is definitely for someone who wants the older Gojira sound, but with newer, more angry material. I think that it’s evident that the motif is pure angst. There is little message to the music, other than rage, angst, and repetition. I can’t say that some of the repeated chants are boring, though. Some of them really just hit and hit and hit, pounding into the atmosphere. I think that The End of Everything is bloated with beatdown segments that should be tacky, but they aren’t, really. They end up being fun and totally catchy. The pinnacle of this really comes in the form of the track False Gods, which seems to have a signature effect for the album.
The vocal delivery is the high point of the whole album. It’s just so damn nasty. I think of vocalists like Gene Palubicki when I hear it. Gray’s performance is the standout for me, something that makes me want to hear him on other projects. I really wish there was some more variation from the guitar section (perhaps some leads), and especially the drum section (tempo, mostly). Each song really had the exact same drum pattern and cadence, which took away some of the magic for me. A few songs with that pattern are fun to listen to, but the energy starts to die-off after maybe 20 (or so minutes) into The End of Everything.
The final track, This Is The End of Everything, takes all the spite and anger from the previous tracks and morphs it into a depressive, doom-like breakdown that swings in 6/8 time, allowing the listener to have some of the variation I had previously-mentioned. From around 03:30, It absolutely lit a small fire on every nerve in my brain, closing the entire album off on a wild (but sludgy) high note that is absolute fire, just crushing on and on until the final fade-out. Given everything we’ve heard on the other tracks, it was a very consistent fade-out that made me happy with the decision to put it last on the album. All that being said, there is absolutely no shortage of golden moments on The End of Everything that make me just grin and bang my head. I generally spend most of my time listening to extreme metal, often losing the urge to jump into a moshpit and fuck some shit up. I can say that Omen Astra’s delivery and style ought to pump-up listeners with its rage and depressive anti-religious themes, despite some of its shortcomings that end up speaking to a subjective element, it’s a dynamite listen, for which I craved a few repeats. The End of Everything is set to be released on May 19th, 2023 on Hypaethral Records.
(4 / 5)
