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Band: Omit
Album title: Medusa Truth Part 2
Release date: 13 April 2018
Label: Secret Quarters Records
Tracklist:
01. Passage
02. Veil Of Isis
03. Medusa Truth
Doom metal fronted by female vocalist has become more and more present inside the genre, and if doom when it started to gain validity in late 80s or early 90s was a thing mostly reserved to male vocalist now the things changed a lot, today we have a proper explosion of such bands, just think of bands like Avatarium, The 3rd And The Mortal, Lethian Dreams, Lucifer, Remembrance, Silent Stream Of Godless Elegy, Witch Mountain, Alunah, Mist, Ashes You Leave, and the list could go on and on. While some have good vocalists, then others know how to write interesting compositions, it's diffucult to find out the band with a right balance and something truly special, because rarely all the elements in this delicate genre blend well together to not become mellow and boring, yet there are bands who know how to make the whole thing pretty appealing and one of them is absolutely the Norwegian trio Omit. These Norwegians now offer their third full-length album with a playing time of more than one hour. Three tracks, one 23 minutes long, one "shorter", just eight minutes long, and one which has a playing time of more than 30 minutes. Similar to some funeral doom metal albums, but it's not, fear not, Omit is completely another story, their compositions don't even comply with the traditional doom metal laws.
Medusa Truth Part 2 comes four years after the first part, and shows the band in the best form ever. Omit who were founded in 2009 released the debut album, Repose, back in 2011, then it was followed in 2014 by Medusa Truth Part 1. On Medusa Truth Part 2 the band mantains the typical melodic doom metal from their previous albums, but it's much more pervasive, touching different territories, like classical music, symphonic, a bit of gothic and yet more. They added some elements that sound absolutely solemn, and this formula works really well, because in all this slowness it's really refreshing to hear the things that here and there lift everything up. Yes, Omit keeps it slow, but the music is very lush and dense, yet powerful and constantly melodic. It's also clear that the vocalist Cecilie Langlie is a very talented singer, not only that she showed her vocal capabilities on previous two albums of Omit, she also sings in Skumring, Havnatt, Vagrant God and Dævvskævv, all the bands that are worth checking out. Still I think that on Medusa Truth Part 2 she offers one of her best vocal performances ever, even though that some more vocal variations wouldn't hurt either.
The other two members of Omit are, the multiinstrumentalist Tom Simonsen, who's also active in the same bands as Cecilie, and keyboardist/guitarist Kjetil Ottersen (Diagnostic, Vestige Of Virtue, In_zekT, Vagrant God). On this album they got some help from Mira Ursic who played the violins and SQV Wind Ensemble responsible for various wind instruments. The chemistry is good and the result is one highly emotive sometimes almost ethereal doom metal sound. If you have such a lenghty songs then you must make the things dynamic and Omit more or less succeeded. Of course that you won't find any catchy driving rhythmic lines that would lift the spirit up, even though that some melodies are simply otherworldly. Sometimes it reminds a bit to early My Dying Bride, especially the sections when violin comes in front, nevertheless Omit is a different thing, more similar perhaps to The 3rd And The Mortal or Lethian Dreams, but still we deal here with a band that sounds quite unique, for example, Omit are one of rare bands that don't use harsh vocals.
Thematically both Medusa Truth albums deal with questions about existentialism, portray a sequence of events in the period of a person’s life. Both parts 1 and 2 deal with a certain series of events, in six parts - or chapters if you will - spread across two full-length albums. There's always present a certain dose of melancholy, for example in "Passage" the melancholic factor is brought to extremes, but is softly eased by varius elements that spice up the dark tormenting atmosphere, like is the use of classical instruments, of course Cecilie's voice and magnificient gothy synths and occasional piano insertions. The pace is often slow and rhythms are heavy, even more because of punishing drum beats and strong bass lines. The songs are pretty hypnotic, sometimes the atmosphere is pretty cold, other times you'll be embraced by a gentle breeze of warmth. These songs are of course not that kind which would get under your skin already on the first listen, it needs several spins and the mood must be right. The compositions follow the similar patterns and don't differ that much between each other, but yet it's certain that the most experimental is the "shortest" one, "Veil Of Isis", and that the culmination of everything that Omit did until now is the 30 minutes long album title track.
"Medusa Truth" is the rightful conclusion to the two series of albums, this is the most adventurous and most versatile song that will lead the devoted listener to an extraordinary journey of doom. Solemn, atmospheric, dark and ethereal are the words that are crossing my mind while listening to it. It's certainly welcoming when the band manages to make a 30 minutes long song so very interesting, that much that you'll never know what will come next, yet everything is smooth, evocative, rather theatrical, also somehow suspenseful and it nicely builds up in tension. The album has also a very good production that adds a lot of depth and it's decorated with a very nice artwork. Omit's Medusa Truth Part 2 must be a joy and a must album for everyone who likes doom metal with good female vocalist, some interesting twists and experiments that only talented musicians who have set their standards very high can manage to do.
Review written by: T.V.
Rating: 8/10
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