Divine Weep: The Omega Man

Curse ye metal gods! Just as I’ve finalised my 2020 list of the best music this arse-wipe of a year offered us, so I slip The Omega Man from Poland’s Divine Weep into my CD player and instantly find that my musings have already been rendered useless. Why? Well, simply because The Omega Man is one of the best traditional/thrash/power metal albums of the year, if not THE best. And it’s apparent right from the off, “Cold As Metal� almost outdoing Accept at their own chant it loud, chant it often game before the Helloween romp-a-stomp of “Journeyman� hurtles through the air and straight into your head. With an uplifting chorus that pulls in all manner of Maiden-isms and spits them out with a Children Of Bodom like intensity, the intention is clear.

Singer Mateusz Drzewicz is a sharp weapon indeed, possessing a truly passionate pure singing voice but one that can be mangled into a snarling sneer and a vice like scream, and still have the bombast that in places reminds of a Manowar like chest beating. That this band put that rapier like blade to good use is to their credit. From the breakneck explosion of “Firestorm� where Bartosz Kosacki’s guitars pour fuel on the fire, to the gnashing grind of “Mirdea Lake� the barrage of riff infused majesty never lets up, an attack that’s as fighting and fiery as it is unrelentingly never once allowed to veer out of control. However, it’s arguably the seven minutes plus of “Walking (Through Debris Of Nations)� that really illustrates the scope and scale of what’s being achieved here. Divine Weep capable of expertly travelling up and down through the gears as they utilise aspects of rock, metal, and much in-between, to take us on a cutting edge voyage that also leaves little doubt as to the late 70s/early 80s inspiration that gets this band’s engine purring.

The Omega Man really is a bristling and brutal display of traditional metal values and yet there’s no getting away from the fact that presented like this, this vulgar display of power suddenly becomes a potent thing of beauty. Looks like I’ll have to hang my head in shame that by a mere few days Divine Weep won’t end up on my year-end list, because make no mistake, it bloody well should have!

Track Listing
1. Cold As Metal
2. Journeyman
3. Firestone
4. Riders of Navia
5. The Screaming Skull of Silence
6. Walking (Through Debris Of Nations)
7. Die Gelassenheit
8. Mirdea Lake
9. The Omega Man

Added: December 27th 2020
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Divine Weep @ bandcamp
Hits: 772
Language: english

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