Omophagia (named after the Greek term for "consuming raw flesh") is embellished as a quintet of horrors from Zurich. With their insane, chaotic riffage, abrasive mid vocals and destructive, yet slightly humorous vibes all around, the question that lies ahead for them is...do they have what it takes? And that will be determined by the performance of their latest sophomore release, which was given to us recently courtesy of Unique Leader Records.
This second album by the Swiss outfit has a rather cryptic title to it, and it doesn't seem as though the themes presented throughout this ten track epic present any clues as to the meaning. Nevertheless, 646965 attempts to slither its way into the minds of its listeners by way of the brutal, sometimes techy and galloping melodeath-esque riffs, blast beats and classic growls. Think of it as a 30+ minute ecstasy trip into a Fleshgod ApocalypsexSkinless-styled composition where techy and slightly progressive riffs and structure take the forefront while dissonant vocals surround the scenery.
The opening is basically an atmospheric track filled with some Gregorian-esque chanting, vibrant sounds as well as some rather interesting tribal percussion patterns and clean vocals that give off a really eerie ambiance. A fitting introduction that catches you offguard and sets up for the madness to come. The first actual song, which shares the album's title, has a catchy melodic chorus riff in the vein of Arch Enemy or Fallujah and culminates with some palm muted slam riffs in addition to oldschool sounding death metal vocals. The guitar parts get pretty crazy intricate at times, making them some of my faves off the release, especially on songs like this one. There are quite a bit of solos throughout the album, as well, particularly following the bridge sections of certain tracks as well as sometimes right off the bat, such as in the following song 'Evolve': one of my personal faves on this release in general for its droning breakdowns and Through The Eyes Of The Dead/Knights of the Abyss type of vibe. The progression surprised me a few times and the tone fits in well along with the production quality.
Some other songs that are worthy of a mention here include 'Pride Before Fall', which has a pretty lengthy instrumental beginning that leads right into a sick melodic verse and, soon enough, a guitar solo once again as you may have guessed. Another great one is 'Mortal Dissociation' because of the techy guitar licks and fills throughout as well as the palm muted tremolos and fast-paced outro...'Narcissus' similarly holds up for me due to its lightning pacing and breakdown variety. Overall I enjoyed the vast majority of factors in this album, though a couple of little qualms I had about it were the over-prevalence of the guitar solos, which is usually not an issue for me though in this case they soaked up a bit much of the limelight at times, particularly in the release's second half (they got a bit too much and overbearing at times); also, I wish there was a bit more vocal variety here and there.
Omophagia's sophomore full-length is something that's worthy of a listen because of how fresh and crisp it sounds compared to a lot of the other brutal death releases out there. The production is on point and the playing is well executed for the most part aside from a few little issues I mentioned having about it. It's a tad bit overly techy at times, but the core elements, sometimes proggy backdrops and overall oldschool death metal ambiance kinda evens it out in the end, making 646965 a rather amusing little listen for the more techy and guitar-oriented metalheads out there.
Fave Tracks: 'Evolve', 'Mortal Dissociation', 'Narcissus'
For Fans Of: proggy deathcore, techy death metal, abundant guitar solos and occasional breakdowns, Abysmal Dawn, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Knights of the Abyss
**This release is available now here!**
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-Review by: Dave Raffy
Musician, reviewer, fan & promoter
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