Spain's ever-growing underground music scene has spawned some notable releases for us metal folk in recent years. With that being said, today's band Insaniam are making a sturdy return with their newest effort. Released just last week and serving as a follow up to the unsigned five piece band's 2015 album Neurotic Mental Storm, this latest offering exhibits many of the traits found in the first album, albeit with some distinctions. Will this one be another worthy addition to the Spanish extreme metal act's discography? Read on to find out.
Ominous Era is the band's second full-length album, which was recently released independently. Serving as a sort of mentally deranged concept release of sorts, this eleven track composition consists of nearly an hour of sickening devastation. Centering mainly around the themes of mental disorder and madness, Ominous Era makes itself stand out from the rest of the blackened death crowd with its unexpected instrumentals, unconventional vocal range and variety, cunning lyricism and more.
As mentioned before, I really enjoy the themes, presence and atmosphere of this album. Like in the debut, the band carries over their blackened death-esque sound as well as many of the interesting concepts. Two of the strongest points in Ominous Era happen to be its shifting and transitioning guitar parts as well as the eclectic vocal range and dynamics. The album opens with a lengthy intro track that begins with some convincingly creepy ambiance and then promptly goes into a sort of galloping black or death metal riff with blast beat drumming patterns. The vocals soon enter into the tirade and bring everything home.
From the first track alone, the transition from guttural death elements to more dreary, atmospheric and blackened aspects throughout is also worthy of noting. In addition, many of the tracks have subtle, but great melodic intros that add a certain vibe. "Let The Fever Explode" is one song that displays a lot of the great range that the vocalist employs, constantly shifting from lows to highs. The riffs really make much of this album work. The later tracks include some pretty catchy breakdown sections...and the outro track, which is also the album's longest, is one of my faves due to its raw feel and overall flow.
While I do thoroughly enjoy this release, there are still a few little things that could've been changed. For one thing, many of the tracks are fleshed out and feel overly long, especially after you've listened to this album for a while. The repetition kind of becomes noticeable towards the end. Secondly, there are a couple of filler tracks towards the middle that kind of serve as intermissions. I didn't really care for those one or two-minute long instrumental or ambiance songs. Other than that, this album feels flawless.
As a concluding statement, Ominous Era is ultimately a worthy second effort and follow-up to the band's debut. The album showcases several elements that make the band's charm and music work, as well as bringing a few subtle improvements to the table, too. In all, this newest effort is the band's deep, lengthy dive into themes of psychological trauma and horror, with mixes of an eclectic vocal range, blast beat drumming and riffage, as well as an overall feel of a blackened death musical territory.
Fave Tracks: "Let The Fever Explode", "NNN"
For Fans Of: Behemoth, Belphegor, blackened death
**Ominous Era by Insaniam is available now digitally on Bandcamp!**
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Review by: Dave Raffy
-Musician, reviewer, fan & promoter
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