Band: Omnium Gatherum
CD Title: Stuck Here On Snakes Way
Year: 2007
Website: OmniumGatherum.org
MySpace: Myspace.com/omniumgatherum
Label: Candlelight Records
Featured on: Burning Misery, Amazon and Play.
Rating: 10 / 10
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I thought a nice way to start this review would be with a little bit of background on how I first found out about Omnium Gatherum. One day, when I was flicking through the pages of Zero Tolerance, I came across a small article and review about them. At that time I was going through a melodeath / melodic Death Metal phase and I decided to check them out. I soon found myself owning everything they had released up until that point and I had become utterly obsessed by “Years In Waste” (which is still definitely worth checking out!). Being the obsessive person that I am, I decided to set up something called the OG MAFIA. This was a kind of fan club for the band and, although the website I created is no longer used, I’d like to think that the OG MAFIA spirit still lives on in all those who were involved in it. Around the time of the OG MAFIA’s creation, I found out that Omnium Gatherum were going to be touring in England that same year and I was lucky enough to go and see them at Bloodstock. Also at around that time, it was announced that vocalist Antti Filppu had left the band. Now, I have to admit, I was a big Antti fan. As far as I knew, he wrote a lot of the lyrics (which I thought were awesome) and he had a very distinctive sound. After that line up change, even though I have to admit that the new vocalist (Jukka Pelkonen) was excellent, my obsession with Omnium Gatherum had started to fade.

The release date for “Stuck Here On Snakes Way” seemed to pass me by entirely. Then, one day, I randomly ordered the album. Before I put it into the CD Player I read through the inlay and lo and behold – the guys had thanked me and the OG MAFIA. I immediately felt more than a tad guilty for not getting hold of the album sooner.

So, was I disappointed when I finally got to hear it? Were the vocals as good as I’d hoped? Well, sit back and I’ll tell you…

“Stuck Here On Snakes Way” is not “Years In Waste II”. This album seems to have more of an edge and the band have got a bit more daring. Perhaps I should now describe them as a Progressive Melodeath band? In fact, I think I’m going to have to do that!

Track by track:

“The Snake And The Way” is purely an instrumental introduction and is like the calm before the storm.

“Into Sea” is powerful and fast-paced and I immediately know that I am listening to an Omnium Gatherum album. Line-up change or not, this is definitely OG.

“Dysomia” starts off with a fantastic lead riff before launching into something fantastically heavy. It’s on this track that Pelkonen proves his worth. The deeper growls on this track really make it stand apart from previous work by the band.

“A-Part Of God” was one of the first tracks I heard from this album because it was post on the Omnium Gatherum MySpace a couple of months before the album was released. I’m not too keen on the ‘modern/techy’ intro, but it picks up really quickly after that – especially for a brilliant guitar solo which pops up at about 2 minutes in. I’ve said that, on the whole, this album is a completely different beast compared to “Years In Waste”, but – while that’s still true – this track could have fit in rather well on that album.

“Undertaker” was another song which I’d heard in advance. While it doesn’t get under your skin quite as quickly as the previous track, it’s still a fantastic track.

“Bastard-O” contains some great guitar moments which almost seem to stray outside of Metal territory altogether and end up in the world of rock. Definitely unexpected, but all the better for it.

“The Third Flame” kicks off the second half of the album and has a slight ‘Thrash’ feel to it, before stripping down to a melodic metal guitar part.

The vocals that open “Just Signs” are completely different from any Omnium Gatherum song so far. The melodic vocals and slow pace lend this song a Doom feel. This makes me think that Omnium Gatherum would not seem out of place on a tour with Swallow The Sun or even Novembre. For the second time on this album, I have been surprised!

“Truth” brings us back to that faster pace again and almost made me jump out of my skin after the relative calm of “Just Signs”.

“Drudgery” starts with some really cool drumming, which sounds a bit like my heart does after I’ve consumed too much caffeine. This is definitely one of my favourites here.

“In Sane World” is another of my favourites – possibly because of the goosebump inducing melody at around 2mins 20secs. Have a listen to it and you’ll see what I mean… unless I’m completely crazy!

And so we reach the end of the album and “Spiritual”. This track has an old school metal-blended with Doom/Death- and a touch of progressive rock feel to it.

After listening to this album I feel a bit silly. I don’t know why I waited so long to buy it! “Stuck Here On Snakes Way” is the natural next step for the band. I’ve decided to give it full marks – not just because I used to be an OG fangirl (which I feel will now start up again), but because each song has it’s own character and is of exceptional quality. The only I’d change is that I’d go back in time and buy it on it’s day of release.