Beyond

Track 4, “Nightwalkers”, is a pretty accurate overall definition of the elements and songwriting specs you’ll find in Omnium Gatherum’s 2013 output, “Beyond”. Allow me to dissect it: Beginning with an introduction to the song’s central melodic motif, it quickly develops into a memorable tremolo line. Efficient at setting a mood despite its simplicity, the catchy phrase is mournful enough to help us conjure images congruent to Beyond’s “such a sad, cold and rainy day in this grey urban landscape” aesthetic, being pushed further by subtle yet eloquent keys and a mightily tight performance from bass and drums. All is good and you sit back, certain this could be a proper follow up to “New World Shadows”, until the track –and your hope- screeches to a halt, being taken over by a lazy groove riff underscored by a beat so basic it almost had me thinking of post-2005 Nightwish, only without histrionic symphonies vying for attention. Even with keyboards and a slow arpeggio providing competent backing atmospherics, the riff’s chugging uselessness grates me to no end, making me wish there was simply no rhythm guitars at all on that spot. A bridge with livelier leads and drums picks things up, segueing into one of OG’s big melodic choruses.

Screech. Chug. Repeat.

Boredom seeps in, even now as I type this, as you can probably notice. The motif is then ran into the ground in a forgettable clean break and an attempt at doom metal that sounds less like a menacing dirge for lost souls at the downtown cemetery and more like a raging, drunken Finnish man trying to find his bottle of Huvila X-Porter inside a ball pool. In a last-ditch attempt to reclaim my attention from Emperor Tedium’s sinister clutches, they finally bring the hooky tremolo back and develop it to its logical harmonic conclusions, dignifying my ordeal in moroseness with a worthwhile, exciting ending. Also, Jukka starts singing in his natural tongue for some reason. Basically, this particular track is 40% good stuff and 60% aimlessness.

Other songs in here follow a similar pattern, for better or worse, either stretching good ideas too thin (therefore squandering their impact) or simply morphing into segments which, while undoubtedly endearing (verses in “Who Could Say”), are just excessively light-hearted, a trait made even more apparent by a production that may just be a little TOO pristine for its own good, emasculating Purdon’s formerly killer tone and robbing all power left in rhythm guitars, leaving only drums, leads and Jukka’s emotional cleans unscathed since OG never needed that many ragged edges on them anyway. If anything, a mixing job such as this seems suitable given the album’s less-than-ballsy nature, but perhaps more bite could at least lay a shroud of faux-aggressiveness and make it all slightly less promptly accessible.

Indeed, Omnium Gatherum’s sixth release is probably the most palatable and subdued of them all. While there’s hardly any shortage of emotional radiance coming from one of Finland’s most charming melodeath bands this side of Insomnium, it could surely use some more energy to deliver its message, like it does in the opening riff of “The Unknowing” or the spectacular choruses and solos crafted for “In The Rim” and “New Dynamic”.

In a nutshell, “Beyond” is like a younger, cowardly brother to “New World Shadows”. While the latter chooses to muster his dignity to face yet another day’s work amidst other forlorn souls in an urban sprawl besieged by colossal downpour, the first one just kind of pussies out, stays home and broods endlessly, unable to find in himself some courage to brave the deluge outside regardless of also being an honest, good-hearted kid. His soul couldn’t be in a better place, but he lacks assertiveness to truly shine.

PS: Be sure to check out the bonus track, an oddball but damn good cover of Rush’s “Subdivisions”.