Most extreme metal fans I talk to either love this band or find their technical mass of death metal & grind to be just a bit too chaotic and messy. I've always been in the 'love 'em' camp, as there's just something about their brand of musical bludgeoning that I've always found intriguing. Their new release for Nuclear Blast, Omnipresent, doesn't change the formula all too much, but damn if some of these violent, brutal tunes aren't just a bit more catchy than normal, among all the chaos are memorable bits that make this another rewarding Origin album, but for different reasons. Vocalist Jason Keyser puts in another maniacal performance, spewing out growls, screams, bellows, grunts, and every other form of vomitory explosion you can imagine, and it's all delivered over a cacophony of pulverizing blast beats & insane guitar pyrotechnics. "All Things Dead" though is just so memorable, that even while you are being brutalized the song just sticks in your brain, the wonderful guitar work of Paul Ryan impressing at every level. He's all over the majestic instrumental "Permanence", and kicks things up a notch on the crushing " Manifest Desolate" alongside some mashing rhythms courtesy of drummer John Longstreth & bassist Mike Flores. Longstreth wows on the acrobatic "Absurdity of What I Am" (this guy is easily one of the best drummers out there), and the band slows things down just a tad for the grueling " Unattainable Zero", one of the best pure death metal pieces here, with Keyser's inhuman bellows leading the charge over massive arrangements. Another great example of the 'catchy' nature of some of these tunes is "Malthusian Collapse"...completely brutal, but those riffs just don't let you go, and Keyser's maniacal growling lures you in even deeper.
It's a pretty short album overall, with half of the songs being fairly brief, but the impact they make is considerable. If you love your death metal on the technical side but with a little fun thrown into the brutal mix, make sure you don't miss this one.
Track Listing
01. All Things Dead
02. THRALL:FULCRUM:APEX
03. Permanence
04. Manifest Desolate
05. Absurdity of What I Am
06. Source of Icon O
07. Continuum
08. Unattainable Zero
09. Redistribution of Filth
10. Obsolescence
11. Malthusian Collapse
12. The Indiscriminate