Omnerod - The Amensal Rise

Omnerod – The Amensal Rise
Release Date: 12th May 2023
Label: Self Released
Bandcamp
Genre: Progressive Death Metal, Progressive Metal.
FFO: Strapping Young Lad, Between The Buried and Me, Gojira, Devin Townsend, Leprous, Rivers of Nihil, Nevermore, Black Crown Initiate.
Review By: Mark Young

Belgian Progressive act, Omnerod hit us with their 3^rd full length album, The Amensal Rise, and from the outset it is clear that they are attempting to push their own boundaries as far as they will stretch.

The next hour will take you on a musical journey that just goes everywhere. And I mean everywhere. This is not a conventional release; it doesn’t sit within where I see progressive metal based on what I’ve heard to date. It lives somewhere else, anchored to heavy metal purely by certain facets of their sound.

Nothing is the same, with probably the album opener, Sunday Heat, the most traditional progressive song here, as it makes its way into Satellites, which has a dizzying opening riff before the calm takes over. This doesn’t last long, as that riff cranks back to life, and the song fights back and forth with growls facing off against an almost choir like clean section. The number of musical ideas present, in what is only the second song, is insane, and at nearly12 minutes long it is mesmeric as it is epic, because it doesn’t feel like any time has passed at all.

Spore comes next, and it just blew me away with its energy and how the vocals were handled. I had to listen to it on repeat just to make sure, because it reminded me of Freddie Mercury, just a phenomenal track. Magnets then comes and takes that baton and runs in another direction, but with those top class cleans coming through. These are evenly balanced with the guttural roars, the heavy and light, applied with a deft touch.

The Amensal Rise and Towards The Core serve up a one-two masterclass, as they rage towards the end. Synths and drums just build up to release a riff that seems to speed up at its end before heralding in the softly sung vocals that rise, with a gothic church organ backing. This is only part of the tale as they switch gears, attacking with beats and riffs. Growls to cleans and back again as the song constantly changes structure as riffs start, stop, reverse, go sideways, but it doesn’t matter as it just works. Towards The Core is slightly muted, and almost comes at you like alternative rock or indie, until the music starts to go off track, which, considering what has preceded it, means that something is coming, but it is not the expected take-off, instead they stay with the cleans which gives it that epic rock feel. And then they hit take off with some country boogie. No joke. It’s just insane.

The final track, The Commensal Fall, ends on an audio kaleidoscope of noise in a way that is similar to a Day in the Life by the Beatles. I can only describe it as passing through a musical black hole where you are spat out the other side where a gentle guitar piece is played to ease the song onto its final resting place and then…done. I have absolutely no idea how they sat down and went from conceiving this to actually recording it. What I do know is that it is one of the best things released this year. Think you know progressive metal? Think again.