J-Man Watcher of the Skies

Despite being hailed as one of the best melodic death metal outputs from Finland, New World Shadows was my entrance into the wonderful world of Omnium Gatherum. This isn't an album for your close-minded death metal purist, but anyone who enjoys melody, progressive sensibilities, and symphonic keyboards in their extreme metal should adore this one. Although many albums of this type tend to often feel generic and uninspired, it's clear that Omnium Gatherum put buckets of blood, sweat, and tears into their latest effort. This is certainly one of the better melodic death metal albums in recent memory, and one every fan of the genre should have in his (or her) collection.

The music on New World Shadows is melodic death metal with obvious progressive leanings towards bands like Edge of Sanity (especially the Crimson II-era). Dan Swanö even lends his wondrous clean vocals to the album. New World Shadows opens up with the highly-progressive tune "Everfields" - possibly the best track on the entire album. There's plenty of variation here which keeps out any stale flavor, and the CD remains interesting throughout its entire 52 minute duration. Although there are plenty of killer death metal riffs, I love the beautiful atmosphere of something like the title track. That's top-notch melodeath right there and Dan Swanö's commanding vocals add even more to the mix. This surely isn't the heaviest death metal album you'll ever hear, but it's among the best that 2011 has yet to offer. I'd recommend all fans of Gothenburg-styled melodeath to give this a shot - you won't regret it.

An interesting sidenote is that the seventh track is titled "Watcher of the Skies". I don't think it's at all related to the Genesis track, though I could be wrong. I doubt it was at all a coincidence, especially considering the amount of progressive influences on the album.

The production is certainly polished, and maybe even a bit synthetic, but I really enjoy it. This is yet another aspect that old-school death metal purists will hate, but I have no issues with the production whatsoever.

Conclusion:

New World Shadows is a top-notch melodic death metal album from Omnium Gatherum that all fans of the genre should definitely look into. I've had a great time listening to the album recently, and it's currently one of the highlights of 2011 melodic death metal. This isn't a perfect album, and it may be a bit "too" polished at times, but it's a generally stellar effort from a skillful and talented group of musicians. I'll go with 4 stars for this unique and highly-enjoyable masterwork. Fans of progressively-inclined melodic death metal are in for a treat with New World Shadows.

Time Signature An infinite mind...

Genre: melodic so-called death metal

This album is another example of why the melodeath genre should have its name changed to something without "Death" in it, because there is not a lot of death metal here - apart from the growled vocals, but at least the vocals are real growls and not your average semi-screamed vocals.

Okay, so it's not really death metal, but that does not mean that the music sucks. Actually, Omnium Gatherum are pretty awesome on this album. In terms of musicianship, they're top notch (just check of the guitar solos which are up there with Vai, Satriani, and Petrucci's work, I think) and the compositions are complex and multi-layered (without being progressive though). And then it's extremely melodic and melancholic, creating an atmosphere which I associate more with acts like Depeche Mode, Mew and Die Laughing than with melodeath.

I think that all tracks are good - perhaps with the exception of "An Infinite Mind" which strikes me as being a bit boring, and stand-out tracks are "Everfields" which is a very melodic and almost epic Opeth-inspired affair, "New World Shadows" which feature Dan Swanö on clean vocals, the groovy and awesome "The Nova Mind" and the instrumental "Watcher of the Skies" (not related to the Genesis song... I think).

If you're into melodic and melancholic music with growled vocals and some groove and awesome guitar solos, then "New World Shadows" should be just up your alley, but I think that a lot of old school death metal fans will not like this album because it is polished and melodic.