Lamentation of the Chaos Omega

To round things off I am going to add a short review of „Lamentation of the Chaos Omega” which has been the full length debut by Austrian cosmic black metal outfit The Negative Bias. Compared to their later works the songs here a bit more compact making the album a slightly more straight-forward affair. However, the major trademarks of their spacey and captivating sound has already been present here as well.

The guitar riffs found in this one aren't too complex or fast paced, but they still manage to keep a memorable tone and add to the stellar melodies accompanied by the steady percussions and the snarling vocals. There is some solo guitar action in certain songs, but it's never too overwhelming. However, I will say that the rhythm and the lead guitar complement each other adequately. Sharp basic chords and classic tremolo runs are melted with eerie and hypnotic harmonies to create an outstanding atmosphere. The music creates a bleak mood and offers a certain kind of melancholic beauty.

What surprised me the most while listening to “Lamentation of the Chaos Omega” is the professional level of the songwriting. Each of the songs has a certain structure and The Negative Bias were successful in making the single tracks memorable without sounding fluffy or simplistic. There are quite a few rhythm and tempo changes and more complex elements but overall the songs follow a clear and stringent structure. The soloing parts are well implemented and never overstay their welcome. Relentless riff attacks are interchanging with atmospheric pieces giving the whole thing kind of a hypnotic feeling. Epic guitar melodies are always present in the background lending each song a special character.

The record is rounded off by a nice and organic production job. The guitars sound crunchy and the drums have enough punch and a natural feel. While there is always something going on in the background and atmosphere is king there is a certain level of rawness giving the album enough grittiness to be of interest for any fan of heavy yet harmonic music.

The Negative Bias is a rather young Austrian band formed in 2016. The band´s core is formed by only three members who are I.F.S (Wallachia and Rauhnåcht), S.T (Golden Dawn) and Florian Musil, but it’s completed by another four members during their live performances. The band´s lyrics are based on the cosmic mysticism, the abysmal darkness of the space and the coexistence between creation and death. Only one year from its inception, the band was able to release a first album entitled 'Lamentation of the Chaos Omega', with a quite eye-catching album artwork. I did like it because it’s a perfect visual representation of the aforementioned band´s conceptual inspiration.

Music wise The Negative Bias could be tagged as atmospheric black metal, but with a quite straightforward approach like the album opener “The Golden Key to a Pandemonium Kingdom” shows us. The guitar lines play a major role, always accompanied by a pretty solid and fast rhythmic section. The first half of the album follows a similar style: long songs with pretty long fast sections with a couple of tempo changes. The length of songs is pretty homogeneous with the exception of the third track, which is a quite short song. This track also differs a little bit from the rest of the compositions, due to the more distorted nature of the main riff. The vocals are the strongest aspect of this album though. I.F.S. achieves a quite strong vocal performance which varies from death metal esque vocals to a more “blackish” shrieks. I personally find the second half of the album the most interesting one, mainly because songs like “The Undisclosed Universe of Atrocities”, have a greater variety. This track has several twits and interesting riffs, besides some atmospheric sections which make it the best song of the cd. The album contains a purely atmospheric track which fails to enhance the album´s atmosphere due to its excessively lengthy duration. It has some good moments but it should have been shorter.

In conclusion, The Negative Bias first release is a decent album with some good moments, but I believe that it fails to represent the incommensurable darkness of the concept behind their music. What is more, when you take a look to the artwork you expect an album much darker than it really is. A good start for sure, but still with a great room to improve.

Originally written for "www.thepitofthedamned.blogspot.com."