Independent metal outfit A Fitting Revenge released its new album, Omnipresence July 1. The 12-song record will appeal to a wide range of metal audiences. That is due in part to the record’s featured musical arrangements, which will be discussed shortly. The lyrical themes that accompany the musical arrangements play just as much into the record’s interest as that musical content. They will be discussed a little later. The record’s production rounds out its most important elements and will also be examined later. Each item noted is important in its own way to the whole of the record. All things considered they make the album a work that metal fans will find worth hearing at least once.
Omnipresence, the new album from independent metal band A Fitting Revenge, is a unique addition to this year’s field of new hard rock and metal albums. It is a presentation that a wide range of metal fans will find worth hearing at least once. That is due in part through its featured musical arrangements. The arrangements are of note because of the clearly diverse range of influences exhibited throughout its body. The death metal style screaming vocals pair with the equally intense guitar riffs from one song to the next to immediately make for comparisons to works from the likes of Arch Enemy and Between The Buried and Me all in one. The use of the ethereal keyboard line in the album’s opener, ‘The Performance’ makes that comparison even clearer. At other points, that pairing is joined by the bass and drums to make for just as much comparison to works from the likes of As I Lay Dying and just as much to works from Whitechapel. Simply put, there are clearly a lot of metal and extreme metal leanings throughout the album’s musical content, and that in itself is certain to appeal to a wide range of audiences, again. From one song to the next, those influences blend together seamlessly to make for 12 arrangements that are certain to keep audiences engaged and entertained without fail.
The record’s overall musical content is just one of its notable items. The lyrical themes that accompany the record’s musical arrangements makes for its own share of interest. The theme featured in the album’s opener comes across as a sort of existential rumination that debates the concept of predetermination against secular views. This is inferred right from the song’s outset, which states, “This self-deception/Stage is set by the divine/The characters flawed/So-called intelligent design/So will you go on/Seek the stage on which to shine/Star in the role never assigned/Unfurling now/Incoherent psycho scroll/Volume of old/Every story ever told/So will you go on/Pleading with the shifting light/Mythic realities collide/Aimless/Pointless.” The song continues in similar fashion from here. In the end, it closes with the statement, “Revealed/Your fate/The script is blank/Your conflict was for naught/This fiction ends the same/Your purpose dies with you/When you exit the stage.” Yes, it certainly seems nihilistic, but it is certain to engage audiences and generate plenty of discussion.
On another note, ‘The Freeze’ is another example of the importance of the record’s lyrical content. This song is less clear in its theme, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The song states here, “Lightning bisecting the pillars of rain/A bullet that’s moving and standing just the same/Statuesque image of who we are/This visage frozen in time/Permanency is a lie/And the death of momentum begins our fall/From Mount Olympus/Ashes to ashes/A late reprieve/The eulogy slows to a crawl/Dust hangs in stasis/A moment in rhyme/Like a painting that captures the fall/Hope of mine/Fossilized in amber/Death of time/Stillness accelerator/This particle now a blur/Slowing to less than a stop/The ax blade hangs overhead/And now the present is truly the past.” The band really leaves this one up to interpretation, though the mention of hope being fossilized in amber reveals what sounds like another nihilistic piece. Though, odds are there is likely something more inspiring here. That the song is sure to generate so much discussion from its fully poetic approach makes it so interesting and another example of the importance of the album’s lyrical content.
‘The Inquisition’ is another example of what makes the album’s lyrical themes important to its presentation. In the case of this song, it comes across (at least to this critic) as being a social commentary about the state of the world. The inference is made as the song states, “Grains of sand from an age yet to be/Signal infinity/Exploited paths/Manipulated roads/Talking chimp found a gun that it knows how to load/The only constant is change/And change is the meaning of pain/Tunnel vision/Black magic reversed/Grandfather in flames/There was never a curse/Selfish endeavors won’t last forever/Take what we may/On the last golden day/We escape the setting sun/Now watch your cities overrun.” It continues in its second verse, “Sow the seeds in native skulls/Raise up new walls over the graves/That we’ve tended before/The victims born/After we die by the same hands/The only constant is change/And change is the meaning of pain.” The mention later in the song that “Every choice will lead/Down the same path that we beat” furthers the seeming message in this song of how we are destroying ourselves through our actions even as things change. Again, this is just this critic’s interpretation and hopefully is somewhere in the proverbial ballpark of what the theme is in the end. Regardless, the seeming message and the deep fashion in which it is presented here once again shows how much the album’s lyrical content has to offer audiences. When the overall lyrical content is considered along with the importance of the album’s musical arrangements, that overall content makes clear how much this record has to offer audiences.
As much as the overall content featured in this record has to offer audiences, it is just a part of what makes the record worth hearing. The record’s production is just as much of note. The production is important to address because of the successful way in which it brings out each element within each arrangement. The powerhouse shredding of the guitars expertly compliments the equally cutting vocals from one song to the next. The drums cut through just as tightly, again, thanks to the work of those behind the glass, adding even more explosive power to the whole of each arrangement. Even the low-end from the bass makes for its own subtle touch in each composition. Overall, the production that went into each of the album’s songs makes each song equally powerful. To that end, the production that went into this album creates a strong general effect that is just as appealing as the record’s content. All things considered, the production and content make Omnipresence a work that most metal fans will find worth hearing.
Omnipresence, the new album from independent metal collective A Fitting Revenge, is a unique addition to this year’s field of new hard rock and metal, and even independent albums. That is due in part to its musical arrangements, which as noted here, lean heavily on a wide range of influences. Those influences range from the likes of Arch Enemy and Whitechapel to As I Lay Dying and Between The Buried and Me. That is a wide range of influences that are expertly balanced throughout each arrangement. At the same time, the arrangements still maintain their own identity separate from the works of those bands and from one another even within the album. The lyrical themes, which range from the seemingly existential to the social and beyond, add their own touch to the record’s presentation. Together with the record’s musical arrangements, the whole makes the record’s overall content reason enough for audiences to give the record a chance. The production that went into the album’s presentation rounds out the album’s most important elements. It ensures the record’s general effect is just as engaging as the content. Each item examined is important in its own way to the whole of the album’s presentation. All things considered, they make Omnipresence an independent metal record that many hard rock and metal fans will find worth hearing at least once.
Omnipresence is available now. More information on A Fitting Revenge’s new album is available along with all of the band’s latest news at:
Website: https://afittingrevenge.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afittingrevenge
Twitter: https://twitter.com/afrtheban
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