November 17th

In from the American melodic death metal scene is another technical band in Onus with a reasonably interesting concept going for them. Combine the really lead happy tendencies of Arsis, but give them something of a flashier Malmsteen edge and don’t apply them on every song or in an overtly asymmetrical matter, and put it overtop a sound that is halfway between Children Of Bodom and Cradle Of Filth. This formula may come off as being a bit disjointed when considering the divide between all of these bands, but the songwriting is actually fairly easy to follow, although the vocal work goes a bit overboard on mixing the clean and dirty styles either simultaneously or in rapid succession of each other.

Sometimes this band sounds utterly chaotic, as they really pour on the lead guitar work whether the vocals have anything to say on the matter or not. The opening “Revelations Through Overture” has flowing sweep picking lines all over it and is utterly saturated with different voice characters, while the music is loaded with blast sections and a remarkable similarity to some stuff heard on “Midian”. Then there are straight up melodeath songs that almost become melodic power metal when the clean vocals come in like “The Wake”, which actually sounds so smooth and polished (minus the rough production) that it’s almost too light for Children Of Bodom.

This is a reasonably coherent, albeit somewhat lower end production wise effort that should find an audience with people who like a lot of newer bands in this style. My biggest complaint about this style is that between all of the Dani Filth, Chris Barnes, Alexi Laiho, and Shagarath worship going on, it’s difficult to stay focused on what’s going on. But there seems to be a lot of people that go for this stuff, so I guess these guys know their audience. It’s not quite my thing, but for what it is, it’s a reasonably good effort for an independent band.