Style: Avant-garde black metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: The culmination of years of experimenting
Thoughts: I never thought they could do it. I never thought DHG could ever release an album that lived up to the flashes of potential that they had shown ever since Satanic Art and Trace of Reality... an entire album that put that mastery of avant-garde black metal on display. A magnum opus.
Five songs, the shortest being eleven minutes in length. There is a potential for a lot of ideas to be had in this album, and it does not disappoint. Nearly every single idea in the album makes sense in the context of the song. Even when the song goes completely off the wall, it never feels out of place... more like just an extension of the insanity that is DHG at this point.
The band blasts like they haven't in years. The band incorperates black metal riffs in ways that they haven't explored since Satanic Art. The band transitions seamlessly from experimental ambient, electronic sections, acoustic guitar breakdowns, and the aforementioned black metal seamlessly. This is all accompanied by Aldrahn's vocals. They deserve special mention.
The vocals contain every bit of the insanity that was present on 666 International... but they make sense here. The wails, the screams, the rambling... its all here, but it fits in the context of the song. The vocals match the music note for note rather than competing with them.
That's really the key factor here, the music is in harmony with itself - even though it is so chaotic and erratic. The music has found balance with itself. It moves seamlessly from one chaotic moment to the next without skipping a beat. I have no other album in my collection that goes through this many random ideas so quickly, yet does it so flawlessly.
DHG have finally fulfilled the potential that they showed with the Satanic Art EP. A Umbra Omega is a masterful black metal album, and one that beats the hell out of almost all the avant-garde music in my collection. Ladies and gentlemen - Dødheimsgard has f i n a l l y arrived.
Written August 11th 2024
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