Review Summary: A musically wonderful album suffering of weak vocal delivery and subpar lyrics.
Alright, it's 3 AM here, so please excuse any incoherence I'm most likely about to deliver.
Melodic death metal has gone three main separate ways since the genre's inception. The first way is pushing the genre towards the mainstream (which led to the birth of metalcore), like In Flames and, on a few albums, Soilwork has done. The second way is carrying on the legacy of At The Gates, with emphasis on heaviness, speed and almost exclusive guitar orientation (The Few Against Many, Amon Amarth). Finally, the third approach is going for a more atmospheric sound by using synths, while mainaining the core elements of heaviness (and this is a staple of Dark Tranquillity and in a different way, Scar Symmetry). Most Finnish melodeath bands lean towards the third option, Omnium Gatherum being no exception.
This is the first and so far the only album by Omnium Gatherum I've heard. I'm very pleasantly surprised by it, and consider it very fresh and crammed full of ideas. Having only recently explored the Finnish scene more thoroughly (used to only listen to Kalmah and Swallow the Sun, but the latter isn't even melodeath). The band can be, to an extent, likened to their Finnish peers Mors Principium Est, Wintersun, or Kalmah, though their usage of synths brings Norther or the Swedish Dark Tranquillity to mind. That being said, let's focus on the qualities of the album itself.
The Redshift is a moderately heavy, but heavily melodic and atmospheric piece of great musical variety and diverse influences. The great opening track, "Nail", reminds me of Norther, "Chameleon Skin" feels strangely like Dark Tranquillity while "Shapes and Shades" reminds me of Opeth or even closer, In Mourning. The main riff of "No Breaking Point" sounds like Nirvana, no fooling. Progressive touches are prevalent throughout all of the album, but not at the cost of sacrificing the catchiness, which is quite a feat. The length of the songs will also prevent the listener from throwing in a "progressive" label, these elements serve more as an embellishment or enhancement than as a base of their sound. But what an enhancement they are!
That's what this album is - one of the most successful collages of groove and progressivity (probably epitomized in the title track "The Redshifter"), and thus should appeal to a wide range of listeners. We even get a love ballad thrown in ("Greeneyes"). The variety is very appealing, conveying a sense of profound musical maturity of the songwriters. Omnium Gatherum is one of those Finnish bands you'd label as "mature" (as opposed to Norther or Children of Bodom, who seem more juvenile by nature).
The album has its shortcomings, though, mainly in the form of annoying clean vocals. When their vocalist growls, it's alright, but his singing skills are underdeveloped and his vocal lines are mostly badly written (like in "No Breaking Point", an otherwise excellent song). The epitome of this is heard in the ballad "Greeneyes", which features extensive usage of the singer's deep, but undeveloped voice. The bigger problem are the lyrics - they get especially annoying in "A Shadowkey":
For aeons
And nanos
We danced
My love
The truest
Queen of night
Seems like those guys will never be good poets. The lyrics aren't so atrocious as to completely spoil the listening experience, but the more mature varieties of melodic death metal are known for quality lyrics, and this band doesn't quite seem to live up. Their message is deep, alright, but written unskillfully. This is not deathcore, where the lyrics can be no matter what and still sell - in my opinion the lyrical content is very important in artistic, quality music. No biggie, though. It's still a great album.
Summary:
PROS
- Norther, Dark Tranquillity, In Mourning, Opeth all on one album
- Great diversity founded on a good set of influences for the band
- Practically no weak track
- The verse riff in "The Second Flame" - gosh darn it, that's good
- The piano-like synth in "No Breaking Point" - you'll know immediately what I mean when you listen to the song
- Lasting value, great enjoyability
CONS
- weak clean vocals
- lyrics sometimes grammatically incorrect and overall badly worded
- the album may take some time to get into, akin to proggy bands like Opeth
