It has been eight years since Dødheimsgard reintroduced their collocational trade onto the grind. Eight years in hiatus. Dødheimsgard can be roughly translated as The Afterlife capitulating their eternal sound to remain truly contemporary in the eight years since Supervillian Outcast.
A Umbra Omega is a choleric stream of alternative ideas counterproductive to mainstream politics and religious dogma. It is the natural music of an industrial age, daring over the precipice of madness with lucidity and humour. Or a sonic hurricane reclaiming the heritage of man.
As a dismissive comparison Jazz would be a misnomer in associating the sound Vicotnik and Co. have designed for this excursion into the great beyond. As an appropriation it works but Avant-Garde Metal has always been about appropriation. A Umbra Omega holds traits of Mr. Doctors’ Devildoll while retaining the essence of second wave euphoria (black metal) that inspires transcendence through detailed changes. It is an intense theatrical journey enthused with sincerity.
The album, like a study of Five Nights At Deadys, is where keys are manipulated into moving past their original intention, ranging from brutal jump scares into higher moments of melodious consideration. Somewhat early into the second track Aphelion Void is the best black metal chicken impression I have ever heard, it is even better than the ‘got my neck caught in the axe’ scream from Dimmu Borgirs’ Glittertind. Timeless.
There is integrity on this, DHGs’ fifth release. There is true passion and raw intent. There is honesty, and that can be heard in the musicianship, the rhythm and the spirit present. Also if you auto-translate ‘Død heimsgard’ you get “DEATH. HOME GARDENING,” which is quite an apt approximation for the cultivation of music on A Umbra Omega.
10/10
Dødheimsgard: Facebook
