Omnihility - Dominion of Misery

#FOR FANS OF: Brutal Technical Death Metal; Internal Suffering, Deeds of Flesh

The third full-length from Oregon-based brutal/technical death metallers Omnihility once again manages to contain their ravenous and utterly pummeling assault into a whirlwind of technical and brutal death. This is mainly a finely-acute mixture of swirling, dive-bombing technically-challenging riffing that hurtles forth at rather frantic tempos that adds an overt brutality as the band whips up a frenzy of complex arrangements alongside the mechanical patterns. With an occasional dip into a more mid-tempo chug-based pattern, this serves as a nice buffer to off-set the more brutal moments here with the tightly-wound, frenzied rhythms here containing a rather charging, chaotic focus with this series of riffing coming together incredibly well. There’s only a slight issue with this one, as the album sounds way too mechanical and triggered at times to really breathe like the material really calls for here as the guitars really offer no depth or variety in their tone and stay on the same format for the album’s duration while the drumming is rather one-note choppy blasts without much deviation as well. It’s really the only thing to dislike here as the rest of the material is quite fun. The instrumental intro ‘Morte Aeterna’ uses it’s eerie lullabye-style to set-up proper first track ‘Psychotic Annihilation’ which carries many of the album’s traditional stamps here of utterly schizoid rhythms swirling through blazing tempos in a tight, frantic charge that readily overwhelms with it’s dive-bombing patterns and razor-wire riff-work that gets this off to a fine start. ‘Immaculate Deception’ slows down the tempo for more of a mid-tempo chug with it’s blasting mayhem as the twisting rhythms and full-throttle drumming continuing the assault with plenty of ravenous patterns throughout that kicks into more technical realms for another standout effort. ‘Dementia Praedox’ and ‘Dead Eden’ both carry more of the same in regards to whirlwind patterns of swirling, complex patterns diving around a frantic, frenzied rhythm augmented with plenty of technically-challenging and complex riffing, blasting drumming and brutal rhythms throughout. The instrumental ‘Within Shadows’ works as a fine mid-album breather that leads into ‘Reflections in Blood’ as the return to a more mid-tempo filled pattern in the riffing and drumming makes for another rather heavily-mechanized charge with the steady blasting and swirling riffing keeping this moving along quite nicely with plenty of fine brutality offered up in a solid enough track. ‘Parasitic Existence’ offers utterly blasting drumming and frantic swirling riff-work firing off plenty of stellar complex rhythms as the frantic, utterly straightforward pummeling tempo keeps the blazing intensity featured non-stop for a true highlight offering. ‘Necrotic. Consumption. Obsession’ is yet another rather enjoyable burst of charging twisting rhythms and frantic rhythms holding the technical patterns in line throughout the frenetic tempo as the blasting drum-work alongside the swirling brutality makes for a stellar offering as well. Finally, the album-closing instrumental title track offers another series of fine swirling rhythms and technically-challenging patterns to really generate a rather impressive closing note for this one. It’s really only the troubling issues already-mentioned that really hold this one back. (Don Anelli)

(Unique Leader Records - 2016)
Score: 80

https://uniqueleaderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/dominion-of-misery