Review Summary: Broken Hope delivers 40 minutes of great death metal, but not without a few blemishes.
I had just heard of the band "Broken Hope," a couple of weeks ago. Out of interest, I decided to download one of their albums and give it a listen. After listening to a couple of songs on the album, it didn't really seem like anything special, so I essentially dismissed it and didn't really give it another chance. Recently, I was scrolling through albums on my iPod, and I saw this album. Since I had some free time to kill, I decided that it would only be fair to give this album another listen, this time listening to it all the way through. After listening to the album from start to finish, I can say that
Omen of Disease is not just a
meh death metal record. There are certainly some unique aspects of this album, and while not exactly being groundbreaking, it delivers a good 40 minutes of excellent death metal that will most likely stick with you for a while.
One thing that sets this record apart from most death metal records is the unique riffing. Many bands release records that are plagued with boring, unoriginal riffs, which in my opinion can sometimes make or break an album. On
Omen of Disease, Broken Hope are able to implement unique, catchy riffs, hardly reusing any on different songs. The guitar work is for sure the main element that makes each song stand out as its own. I'd say that the songs
Omen of Disease,
Give Me the Bottom Half, and
Carnage Genesis are the strongest examples of the great riffing that can be found throughout the album. Unfortunately, repetitive, unoriginal drum parts can sometimes shadow the brilliant instrumentation that's at play.
Some people don't really pay much attention to vocals in death metal, and some people do. It doesn't matter which one of these types of people you are, you'll be impressed by the vocals on this record either way. The low, guttural growls are extremely reminiscent of both Cryptopsy vocalists, Lord Worm and Matt McGachy. Since Broken Hope's vocalist sounds so eerily similar to Matt McGachy especially, he consequently suffers from the same problem as Matt; his lyrics are impossible to understand. Thankfully, this isn't as much of a problem as it is with Cryptopsy, as the lyrics here aren't exactly above average when compared to most death metal lyrics as a whole. All in all, even though lyrics are indecipherable, the low, ominous nature of the vocals just add to the atmosphere of the album and create an even more morbidly enjoyable experience.
So far, I've made it sound like this record if flawless. Don't get me wrong, it's a great record, but it does fall victim to many classic faults that make it a great album instead of a fantastic album. For starters, the song structures of more than a few songs are extremely unoriginal and repetitive. The best example of this would be in the song
Predacious Poltergeist. More than half of the song is essentially a generic half time beat and a one-measure riff that repeats for the entire time. Thankfully, guitar solos are worked into a few of the songs, which is a breath of fresh air when a song follows a cliché verse/chorus/verse/chorus song structure.
If I had to pick one thing that I disliked the most about this album, it would be the fact that after the song
Give Me the Bottom Half, no tracks stand out. With the exception of
Choked Out and Castrated, each track acts as more of a filler instead of an actual song. These last four tracks are definitely catchy, but you'll most likely forget any key sections and not even be able to tell which song is which after you've listened to them.
After listening to the entire album, I noticed that Broken Hope undoubtedly sounds extremely reminiscent of the Swedish death metal band "Bloodbath". Although Bloodbath admittedly releases consistently better material, the two groups definitely share some similarities. Whether it's the half time verses coupled with brutal, catchy riffs, or the speeding fast blast beats and deep, guttural vocals, there's no denying the fact that Broken Hope was almost surely influenced by Bloodbath when writing the material for this record.
Overall,
Omen of Disease is a great death metal record, even though it has a few blemishes. While not being groundbreaking, it sure as hell stands out in a day and age where godawful djent/deathcore releases are being idolized. Although it was almost a chore to sit down and listen to, I can wholeheartedly say that I'm glad that I did. If Broken Hope continues to evolve their sound and fix some of the flaws that we saw with this album, I'm sure that their next release will certainly be fantastic. Who knows, maybe it will even be able to compare with some Bloodbath records?
Pros
- Great, catchy riffing
- Terrifying, guttural vocals
- Unrelenting speed throughout most of the record
- Reasonable length
Cons
- Boring, unoriginal, sometimes repetitive song structure
- Hard to decipher between tracks
- Damn near impossible to understand vocals
- The sample at the end of
Rendered Into Lard...
Recommended Tracks
- Womb of Horrors
- Rendered Into Lard
- Choked Out and Castrated
