Anomalous - Ohmnivalent (2011)

[myhomeismycastle]

Anomalous - Ohmnivalent (2011)
Technical Melodic Death Metal (ich verkneife mir hier ein 'brutal' und 'core' )


Full-length, Brutal Bands
March 15th, 2011
1. Premateria (A Fire Birth) 03:40
2. The Seraphim Veil 05:20
3. Bicruciforms: The Eternal Return 04:58
4. Ohmnivalent 08:19
5. Mitosis 08:42
6. Panacea 04:44
7. Hypnagogue 05:02
8. Demiurge 05:26
9. Binary Resurrection 07:40
Total playing time 53:51

Anomalous isn't necessarily a new metal act, having formed back in 2001, but it's a band that many probably have never heard of until now. This group brings together a unique sound through combinging Brutal Death Metal with Technical and Progressive Metal elements that make their material much more chaotic then most bands of the Brutal Death style. OHMnivalent is the first full-length effort from the group, however they issued an EP entitled Cognitive Dissonance back in 2005 through Brutal Bands as well, which was not really met well in the media. After all this time, has the band come up with an album that can overshadow their EP debut?

Upon the release of OHMnivalent, the band will have been together roughly eleven years. One would expect that, over the course of that time, the band would have a wide array of great songs to put together onto one single full-length offering. Unfortunately, in the long run, it's nothing short of what many Technical Death Metal acts are doing today. Acts such as Origin or even Brain Drill (minus the showoff guitar performances) immediately spring to mind during the start of "Premateria (A Fire Birth)", though the introduction on the start of that track is easily one of the best introductions that could have possibly been composed for this release. There are also some slower moments on the recording that have a slight Groove element to the Technical performance, similar to that of Meshuggah. The only genuinely difference between many Technical Death Metal acts of today and this release would be the inclusion of some more Progressive aspects to the music, which wind up being very scarce sometimes.

The Progressive elements seem to be more isolated to the guitar solos. Of course, some tracks will carry a Progressive trait that bands like Biomechanical exemplify today, bringing in a Progressive structure to the Death Metal guitars and drums, which happens to be the case on "Premateria (A Fire Birth)", but it's greatly overshadowed by the more Technical guitar work that, sometimes, proves to be too much in the song. "The Seraphim Veil", however, finds the band utilizing a Progressive stance on the guitar solo, weaving in an odd Progressive Rock atmosphere that is slower, laid back, and meant more to take you on a musical journey, especially during the second guitar solo, before slamming back into the madness. Of course, each song is continued from one song to another, having nu breaks in between due to the music bleeding from one track to another. This makes for a great flow to the album, but sometimes the jumps can be a bit too extravagant, such as the bleeding in from "The Seraphim Veil" to "Bicruciforms the Eternal Return", which has a sudden brief period to pounding drums that go faster then either song, and feel like a tacked on transition.

OHMnivalent is, literally, a truly chaotic album. The music jumps around so much on many tracks, it's insane and often hard to follow, even though the songs bleed into one another. The only time the album becomes a little easier to follow is the instrumental track "Mitosis", which is a much slower Progressive track that, like the solos on "The Seraphim Veil", are done in a manner that would relax the listener, and weave an atmosphere that transport the listener to a whole other world. The problem here is that it seems to take forever for that to really hit, as the build up to it takes well over four minutes. The sheer insanity of the release also hinders it as it really only provides more of a mayhem feel to it, greatly drawfing any sense of brutality to the original composition style from the band. Unfortunately, it's at this point that the album starts to slip. From "Mirosis", the music stays at a rather tame feeling, not holding the same chaotic trait, and eventually just feeling more like filler material with "Panacea" and "Hypnagogue". "Demiurge" doesn't quite feel like a filler track, but it still doesn't quite retain the chaotic quality of the rest of the material, as well as features a breakdown that slows that insanity down moreso, just making it feel bland due to the lack of any sort of Brutal Death Metal feeling to it, and "Binary Resurrection" winds up being one of the few songs that manages to nicely blend the Progressive aspects of this band's Brutal/Technical Death Metal style, but continues to showcase a more Deathcore approach that appeared in "Demiurge", which winds up hindering the song a bit thanks to that style's tamer breakdowns.

Though the band manages to create an intense and thoroughly chaotic album, OHMnivalent misses the brutality mark by doing too much for this release at once. While the mayhem isn't really that bad a thing for the release, once it hits the half way point and goes into a slower, atmospheric Progressive instrumental, it starts to go down hill fast with a lack of the insanity, and material that isn't as impressive, but comes off more bland, or as filler material. Anomalous had a brilliant idea for OHMnivalent, but the execution winds up leaving the album a little lacking at the end of the day, but still shows some promise for the band for a future release.

http://www.apochs.net/CDs/Anomalous-OHMnivalent.html

Technischer Death Metal zwischen Melodic und Brutal. Der Gesang ist eher ein Shouten wie man es von Meshuggah und '-core' bands kennt. Die Scheibe hat sehr schöne Momente, wirkt über die ganze Albumlänge jedoch etwas verfahren.
7/10

http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=84711
http://www.myspace.com/anomalousmetal

[padrak]

Ich finde sie nicht übel, zum kaufen ist es aber doch ein bisschen wenig.