Review Summary: Where has the fun gone? (Nowhere -- it was left behind.)
I'll say it -- the departing from the band of drummer Matt Couto was a huge loss for Elder. Georg Edert seems to be a competent drummer, technically, calmly navigating sometimes esoteric time signatures and rhythmic pulses with aplomb -- however, he is much more prone towards getting 'locked in' to a certain rhythmic cadence that does not fulfill the potential of the rest of the band's jaunty, explosive playing, especially compared to Couto's frenetic, scrappy, more fun style.
There are times where Edert's more laid-back, minimalist-ish approach does work to great effect -- I think of the final home stretch of Catarasis here, where his almost stubborn refusal to deviate from his rhythmic pocket does accentuate the track's dreamy climax, or the opening of Merged In Dreams - Ne Plus Ultra, where (again) his minimalistic tendencies are to the benefit of the tracks spacious atmosphere. But then are tracks where Edert's snare placement is just plain off, robbing the songs of a certain kind of momentum where it needs it most. (For this I'd refer the reader to 'Endless Return', where the uneven snare placements -- while artsy and strange, sure, I think gel with the guitars like oil with water.) Or tracks where Edert simply On top of which, Edert's drumkit seems to have basically two cymbals -- hi-hit and crash/splash -- and it can start to sound very one-note after awhile.
Gone are the playful pyrotechnics of 'Lore' or 'Blind', where Couto would tastefully lock in to the furious, fuzz-laden bursts of power strumming, only to ease off and provide a groove-surfing foundation for the guitar and basswork to really shine -- Edert seems dead-set on dragging the proceedings here into rather average doldrums.
Which is an absolute ***ing shame, as the guitar and basswork here is possibly the best Elder's ever put on display. I would kill to hear what Couto would have done to interplay some of the sweep-picking fireworks achieved on the title track. Nick DiSalvo's vocal work is the strongest it's ever been, and finally achieves what his experiment on 'Omens' had been striving for -- the vocal melodies are no longer relegated to the background, a la the early part of Elder's output, instead providing purposeful choral throughlines for the rest of the soundscape when present, and their absence lending more instrumental passages all the more dramatic power, without the obtrusiveness caused by the production style 'Omens' employed.
I was really hoping 'Omens' was the sound of Egert still getting 'up to speed' with the band and their style, and that for their next album he'd dial in his choices more tightly to the band's precise ebb and flow. Alas, it was not meant to be. Just like 'Omens' this album is not without merit, it simply scarcely meets the potential of the core songwriting.
