Dire Omen - Formless Fires Embodied EP (2018)

While they still might not register the same visibility as some of their Canadian counterparts also trailblazing the visceral crossroads of death and black metal aesthetics, Dire Omen has proven by this point that they're well worth the effort to check out if you're at all a fan of an Aurochs, Mitochondrion, or Antediluvian, or others worldwide who commingle the suffocating miasma of antiquated death metal with spastic, dissonant runs that often fall more into the camp of frenzied, blackened post-modern extremity. Formless Fires Embodies is a smaller dose of dizzying restlessness than their Dark Descent debut Wrestling the Revelation of Futility from 2014, but it's a great example of how just adding a little something extra can elevate a medium from stagnation to the death metal deli counter.

Fresh to order. What I mean by that 'little something' in the case of this EP is how each of the three tracks' harrowing, chaotic subterranean density is sliced through by some degree of middle or higher pitched, heavily dissonant guitars which immediately lends it a new layer of atmosphere. Obvious examples of this are in the creepy waning moment of "Malkuth", where bewitching harmonies create a haze of paranoia before the EP closes out. Or in "Null", an all-out assault on the senses, when the spikes of fragmented, Voivod-like guitars blanket a phrase over the blunt gutturals and lightly grooving bass lines, before they just erupt back into blasting your noggin off. Passages like these catapult Dire Omen beyond what might otherwise prove a more clinical exercise in the style, and while the bulk of the material here might tend towards the more straightforward and aggressive, it's that detailing which had me wanting to revisit the tracks rather than any of their brutality.

The production of the EP is definitely as dingy and claustrophobic as their past work, placed organically underground without ever shifting over towards vaulted, ominous inaugural Incantation worship. The vocals are used primarily like brute neolithic grunts that serve as an additional percussive weight alongside the drums, and to be honest I wouldn't mind if a bit of effects were placed on them just to have them stand out slightly more. They're intrinsic to the style, but perhaps a little dry and redundant when the music around them is so much more spastic. This is more about the mix than their syllabic placement, and in fact I think the tunes in general could benefit from a more brazen approach, where the guitars more boldly churn through your intestines and the drums cave in your skull. Beyond that lack of gloss, however, there is so little to complain about, and these tunes are equivalent in quality to that prior full-length. If you're seeking an experience bordering on Portal or Abyssal, only 'unmasked', or you're out tacking into the warping winds of chaos-born, dissonant death metal, Dire Omen should be at the other end of your spyglass, approaching with haste.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] 

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Dire Omen - Wrestling the Revelation of Futility (2014)

Dire Omen's continued development has metamorphosized them from fairly humble, Floridian-tempered death metal roots to the more chaotic and calamitous death and black extremes in the wheelhouses of their countrymen Antediluvian, Mitochondrion, Aurochs, Adversarial and so forth. In fact, as of their 2012 Severing Soul from Flesh EP, the band had really transformed into another branch of that twisted tree, with some clear connections to its neighbors, like the morbid and esoteric cover artwork by Tim Grieco (aka Hassiophis) of Antediluvian, and that same sense of unhinged unpredictability tempered only by the certainty that you are in for one graven, subterranean onslaught, characterized by the ominous guttural vocals which are suspended just behind the manic instrumentation.

Coincidentally, as the Canadians have matured, so too has the quality of their music, which despite its fits of frenzied abhorrence is still highly riff-focused, with blocky palm-muted rhythm guitars used to break up the blasting, frothy tremolo picked patterns. At the heart of it, this is still very much rooted in the Morbid Angel, Deicide and Incantation styles of the earlier 90s, with reference points in Blessed Are the Sick or Onward to Golgotha, but where those bands sounded at the time like men who had caught a glimpse through some tear in the space/time continuum to a Lovecraftian void of horrors, these Canadian groups seem to treat the aesthetic as if its their home terrain. The listener really feels like he/she is being transported through some claustrophobic corridor of filthy flesh, pressing in everywhere until asphyxiated by the ugliness. Kinetic entropy. Sporadic tempo changes erupting in the pure chaos of Limbo, untold anatomies reproducing at alarming rates into squamous anomalies that leech and suck and devour. This is not pretty music, and when the guitars are blitzing along to the very raw, organic drums during blast parts it will grind your fucking socks off.

I'm not going to claim that Dire Omen have really yet grasped the art of brilliant, memorable riff construction, but there is no question that the progressions here are kept very busy, with churning dissonant fills between the unclean beatings that the more obvious chord choices produce. You can't really get bored or exhausted because its too effective at stirring your gut in an uncomfortable way. The bass lines are corpulent, like swollen corpses, and Rolando Rodas' vocals are used more as a 'filler' between the gaps of the notes and percussion, a looming threat that seems to promise that even if you can survive the brawling guitars, there is still this impregnable wall of dead flesh trapping you forever, which really lends some credence to the title of the album. Unhappy, unhealthy stuff here, an unholy, raw conglomeration of their cavernous peers and influences with faint traces of that forgotten, ogrish riff-salad reminiscent of old, old Kataklysm, Disharmonic Orchestra, Convulse, and other bands you might have experienced in the 90s. Madness. Still room for this band to 'flower' into an even more unwholesome, suffocating entity, but this is their strongest material yet.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

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Dire Omen - Severing Soul from Flesh EP (2012)

One of the true highlights in this hobby of mine is to experience the positive growth of younger, underground acts as they develop into more mature, seasoned sounds; and Severing Soul from Flesh is the latest instance of this I've come across. I had a neutral reaction to the 2011 promo Dire Omen had sent me, but they've upped their ante this time around, with a considerably stronger sense of identity. Everything from the Tim Grieco (Antediluvian) artwork, to the punchier production, to the very atmospheric spin they place on centrally old school death metal motifs is advanced. I can't promise that the Canadians' new EP is wholly unique or consistent to the point where it's ready to march into the upper echelon of its newfound niche, but it's certainly a step up in the ranks.

The core strength I noticed in this set of songs (only one of which has been drafted from the previous promo) is their ability to balance out the simplest of old school death metal grooves with atonal tremolo passages or spikes of dissonant melody that immediately capture the ear with creepy precision. This is prevalent upon a piece like "Severing Soul from Flesh" itself, which alternates between airy, ominous simplicity to sequences of choppy, thrusting rhythms anchored by the drummer's double-bass footwork. To an extent, the EP services that same set of influences that most of the band's I've dubbed 'cavern core' seem to honor. You'll hear tufts of Autopsy, Obituary, Gorguts, and Incantation floating about the nihilistic nothingness, but I also heard traces of Bolt Thrower, old Sepultura (before they sucked) grooves, the slower works of Morbid Angel circa Blessed Are the Sick, even more recent acts like Sonne Adam or Nader Sadek. None of this is managed with any jumbled technicality or complexity, but dowsed in a pungent, wet guitar tone that sounds simply beautiful when the band picks up its pace for "Decaying Moral Scripture" or the title cut, like human organs being spun on a potter's wheel.

Add to this the ritualistic, unfeeling, languorous haze of the EP's opaque production, and you get this inky wall of impermeable darkness hovering just over your shoulder. Like the best atmospheric death metal, Dire Omen scares the shit out of you. There's a sense of 'wrongness' here, something so eerie and effective about what they conjure here that was almost entirely missing from the last release. I'm not just referring to the angry, aggressive Thelema chanting of the "Presence of Ra-Hoor-Khuit" intro, but the actual metal music throughout. I wouldn't want to run into these guys in some tomb or cellar after midnight, not unless I was armed and armored with holy water, crucifix, and plate mail to defend me against the sacrificial knives.  Partnered with the richness of the mix, gruffness of the occult guttural vocals and the overall pacing, this is something I'd easily recommend to those seeking new voices from the abyss, even if it's not entirely perfected or distinguishable from several of the other names I've dropped above. Well done.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

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Dire Omen - Promo EP (2011)

Dire Omen is a Canadian hopeful performing a concoction of death and black metal which heavily favors the former. I'd liken their direct style to a mix of mid-period Morbid Angel with the layered snarl and growl vocals that characterized Deicide's early albums; some sparser black metal dissonance thrown into some of the riffing on a few of the songs here. As they're an unsigned band, production values cannot be expected to be soaring through the roof, but the quartet has done well enough to create something vibrant and evil, even if a few of the levels leave something to be desired. The bass is thick and creates an eerie substrate to the drumming, and I found my ears drawn to it quite often through the three tracks here, but often at the expense of the guitars.

Of the three songs here, it was "Your Chosen Hell", the opener that I enjoyed the least, a pretty straight charge of old school death with blast beats and lyrics that are percussively fused to the rhythms much like they were on Deicide or Legion back in the early 90s. The bridge aims for a creepier atmosphere that foreshadows the next track, "Serpent's Child", which is far more desolate and appealing, beginning with a simple drum march alongside the more vapid, bleak notations and then slowly gathering force before a nice, spacious break in its final third. The band's namesake, "Dire Omen" closes out the promo, returning to the blast work and frenetic pacing of the first track, but more successful at fusing its shadowy, black miasma to the double bass work. Most of the riffs are pretty basic, and not wholly compelling, but at around 2:20 it hits this Godflesh-like ringing that immediately draws the ear.

There are a number of other Canadian bands performing a similar mesh of extremity, for example Adversarial and Begrime Exemious who are both quite promising. Dire Omen doesn't yet dwell on that same precipice of intensity when they attempt higher velocities, but there a few good moments of grim, spirit leeching atmosphere here that hint at some potential. If you're a fan of old school USDM like Immolation, Incantation or Morbid Angel which casts an opaque ichor to its rhythmic hostility through the charnel choices in chords and timing, then this is well within your sphere, and blissfully untethered to the Swedish and cavernous sounds that are currently trending in the underground. There are some clear improvements to be made here, like a more powerful guitar tone or more ear striking riffs for the speedier segments, but its not a bad stab at the style.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

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