Omophagia – Rebirth in Black
Release Date: 16th September 2022
Label: Unique Leader Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Brutal Tech Death.
FFO: Exocrine, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Origin, Incantation.
Review By: Rick Farley
Formed in 2006, Omophagia who are comprised of musicians from both Switzerland and Brazil offer up their fourth heaping slab of brutal tech death, Rebirth inBlack on Unique Leader Records. Since forming, this international five piece have staked a pretty brutal claim in the world of extreme metal. Three years after releasing 646965 the band is upgrading their sound to include orchestral elements which add symphonic darkness to the layers of well-balanced brutality. The tracks are more focused and have taken a harsher turn towards extremity without sacrificing compositional integrity. Beautifully written individual pieces of darker, amplified intensity. The band is not sacrificing any of their core sound, but only enhancing it with dramatic tension between the levels of auditory destruction. Rebirth in Black will mark an effort towards differentiating themselves from the rest of the pack that overpopulates this genre.
After a choir filled symphonic intro, The Consequences of Guilt blasts open the flood gates into a furious black metal influenced tremolo picked section leading to techy death guitar wizardry. During the verse, breakneck speed pummels with soul crushing efficiency. Vocalist Benji screams like a maniac, shifting between guttural and black metal screams. His vocals have a distinct personality to them that adds versatility and ramps up the coolness factor by ten, with his enunciated pig squeals and screeching. Musically, the song effortlessly morphs between spacey technical guitar melodies to drum blasting insanity while still managing to be catchy and memorable.
Ominous sounding guitar melodies dance underneath a chunky chugging riff throughout The Plague proving that technicality and well-crafted song writing are not mutually exclusive. At times, the song is a blur of speed metal style riffing from guitarist Henrique and at other times, just pure headbanging heaviness with booming low end from bassist RafaHell. The song skates the line between no frills groove laden death metal and technical thrashy ferocity.
Album closer I live for your Death is brutal double bass and metallic riffing blitzing it’s way forward, not relenting the tempo or crunchiness for the first half of the track. It breaks into a short clean guitar passage before infernally bringing the trebly, higher note black metal to frost everything over. Drummer
Stefan’s kick pedal work and fills are in overdrive, forcefully leading towards the end of the record, abruptly stopping with distorted chords ringing out and a triumphant sounding guitar melody. A fitting end to an album that features incredibly musicianship and serious writing chops.
The production is polished and clean. Personally, I would have liked a rougher sound. The bass heaviness is there, but the guitar tone sounds a tad thin. The solos, however, have great bite and come through fierce. The snare drum sounds incredible but is occasionally a little loud in the mix, while the rest of the drums are mixed well. This could have been an on-purpose thing for emphasis. Depending on the style of vocals, the screams and squeals can be a bit noisy, but the growls sound incredible. Despite these minor gripes, the record truly does sound great. Also on a side note, while the tracks are all mostly really good, I’m not sure there’s enough staying power for repeated listens.
Up until this review, I was unfamiliar with Omophagia. I visited their back catalogue and while I prefer the meatiness of the guitars production wise on their previous albums, the addition of symphonic elements and laser focused song writing on Rebirth in Black should propel the band to new heights. 
(3.5 / 5)
