Omega Therion

Stormnatt come from the Austrian Black Metal scene and they exist in music for a long time as they were formed in 2000 while all these years they are contained by the same three members which formed the band. Until today they have released one demo and three full length albums. This is how we come to the July of 2014 when they release their most recent album called Omega Therion, five years after their last work. This album contains seven compositions of overall duration of forty minutes. Those who know the band know what they have to expect by this new album too. So here the listener will come across well-played Black Metal, which clearly has a melodic orientation, as their influences can be set into the melodic Scandinavian and more specifically the Swedish scene.

The speed of the tracks mainly is medium, but without lacking in slower-melancholic parts or the faster outbursts. The riffs are melodic and full of feelings and images, other times they remind of Paradise Lost and other times of Dissection, while some times we will come across some Thrash references too. The chaotic, fast parts are very few and their purpose is to give that dark and violent sentiment that the band wants to put out in certain parts. Generally they create the atmosphere that the band wants and they transmit the feelings to the listener easily. However they give the impression that you have listened to them again many times before this specific album, that is that there is no sign of originality. The tracks have a quite long duration, over five minutes, but their structure is quite good, with smooth changes regarding the rhythm and the feeling, they don’t tire the listener.

The experience that Stormnatt have in music would not allow them not having done a great job concerning the sound and the deliverance of the instruments. So the production is absolutely clean, somewhat bass and dark delivering the heavy but at the same time melancholic, full of feeling sound. The mixture is good as the listener can listen to each instrument individually without the massive character of the compositions to be lost. The guitars are the ruling instruments as they achieve to deliver the riffs with feeling and the atmosphere that they demand. The bass is not clearly audible but it fills the sound well. The drums have beautiful, interesting lines, other times they fill the sound well during the rhythmic parts, other times they add violence and power during the fast parts, they have interesting turnings, intelligent changes and nice outbursts. The vocals are harsh and absolutely monotonous Black Metal φωνητικά, staying the same during the entire album, something that makes them boring almost from the beginning. The lyrics are contained in the cd, they are written in English and they speak of death, occultism, darkness.

The third full length album of Stormnatt caused me combined and many times opposite feelings. On one hand, the atmosphere and the feeling touch the listener from the beginning. Also the sound and the technical characteristics are exactly as what every listener would ask as they highlight the compositions and they make the listen easier. But on the other hand, the riffs and generally the style of the band have nothing special, nothing personal. In some parts it sounds so common like it came out of a mass production factory. The fans of the melodic Black Metal maybe will appreciate this album more. The rest of you avoid.