Omnicore "Mass Murderer" CD
[Divine Comedy]
This is the second record from this French project, and though it's my first exposure to them I absolutely love it! Their overall style is an ominous, bombastic take on orchestral/symphonic martial industrial complete with traditional instrumentation and electronics, samples and vocals, etc. What strikes me the most about these compositions is that the music is really quite emotional and cinematic, not to mention it possesses a flawless level of professionalism and maturity extremely rarely encountered with these styles. Everything about this work represents true quality to the highest degree. The recording is exceptionally clear and lets every resonant drum ring forth, the low-end pulses and throbs are full and oppressive without being muddy or overbearing, the mix is precise in its placement of vocals and accent textures, etc. By far my favorite track early on is "Dying in Berlin", which tones down the percussive presence a bit in favor of lush acoustic guitars and deep, soft vocals against subtle piano lines and slightly less dominant synth orchestrations. "Les Alterations Cadaveriques" is a bit looser in its use of looped elements and more soundscapes than tangible musical contributions, which continues in the more spacious and sample-heavy "L'Alliance Nouvelle et Eternelle". It's interesting how the tracks evenly balance themselves between using either sampled voices or vocals as lead message-bearers, with the vocals themselves blending male/female narration and generally restrained singing (more the former than the latter). Among other notable standouts, "Triumph of Death" brings in slightly more obvious industrial influences as grating, clashing machinated tones are used in cooperation with standard percussion to create layered rhythms; while "Strong New World" utilizes the first blatantly electronic beat of the entire album (still very tactfully manipulated); and "Melodie d'un Songe" briefly closes the disc with another quaint piano line over some ethereal ambience. The layout contains some dated S&M images involving only women, alongside lots of decorative patterns and a strict color palette. The curious lyrics (mostly in English, some in French) are all included, albeit slightly hard on the eyes with the tiny font, but the texts are certainly a bit more creative and involved than most of what you'll encounter from the experimental realm. "Victims of the symptom of the mob. The abused souls, submissive and stupid, are called by the great madness of humanity, the nauseating epidemic. Guide the weak spirits to their individual and insane desires in a last march, the insanity carries with it the lost and innocent souls towards the depths of the refuses." This is an absolutely excellent piece of work. Dark and emotional in tone, moving in its consistent flow and pacing... nearly perfect, quite honestly. I don't feel that it needs to run well over an hour considering its focused approach, but there isn't one poor song herein, so this comes highly, highly recommended. I'm certainly going to watch out for their future efforts, and I'd love to hear them delve more into the "Dying in Berlin" side of their presentation. (9/10)
Running time - 69:22, Tracks: 13
[Notable tracks: Dying in Berlin, Reward the Guilty, Punish the Innocent, Hate, Revenge, Power & Blood, Melodie d'un Songe]
Divine Comedy Records - http://divineco.records.free.fr

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