Review Summary: The best pure melodeath all year… look no further
On the constant search for quality melodeath leads me down all manner of corridors and hallways but admittedly many are dead ends. Last week’s hunt led to a doorway opening to a strobing darkened room where Godark were launching into “This Is The End” as seen in their video for the opener on “Omniscience”. Cause for pause as I’ve been here before, an initial hope of good metal soon extinguished. Yet no such issues here with this triple axe attack and clean lines with keyboard enhanced atmosphere and a hint of female softness. “This Is The End” is just the beginning.
The lads from Portugal have come from out of the shadows to deliver a consummate expression and if you’re looking for a new meaning in melodic death metal look no further than “Looking For a New Meaning”, a total exhibition of compelling modern melodeath and one of the peaks on “Omniscience”. With this diamond in the rough, Godark join a kinship of unheralded Mediterranean melodeath acts in the last of couple years alongside Ancient Settlers (San Sebastián) with “Our Last Eclipse”, The Moor (Venice) with “Ombra” and Aetherian (Athens) with “At Storms Edge”.
Released on the same day as Omnium Gatherum’s “May The Bridges We Burn Light The Way”, it eclipses that record by some margin with a greater intensity and inspiration, even if the fusion of malice and melody is borrowed from such esteemed luminaries. “Into The Hollow” especially drives and glides with layered riffing and varied vocals in a multipart track that recalls “Fiction” era Dark Tranquillity. Melodeath more than other styles has admirers strictly loyal to certain bands and albums so landing on a sound that is both familiar and innovative is a tricky prospect in 2025 but Godark manages both in songs like “Frozen In Time”, with its folk flavoured lead riff and muscular support.
The band philosophizes “the idea of omniscience, moving between absolute consciousness, doubt and the search for meaning” with first single “Leaving Out”, taking us back to the strobing darkened room and inside the inner sanctum of Godark where the emotion of the music is laid out bare “Then i saw, too many in sorrow, madness and lies!”. It’s highly charged, epic and hits a nerve. But isn’t that the point?
“Omniscience” could easily be accidentally missed but not deliberately passed on. Even deep in the track list it’s melodeath pure and powerful, “Blind In Limbo” worthy of a peek irrespective of all others and would be a sound entry point to the record. Save for the odd less-than-essential tracks like “Minds Trigger”, “Omniscience” serves as a searing reminder that good melodeath is worth searching for with “Land Of Insane” its creative and conceptual culmination.
