DIRE OMEN - Wresting The Revelation Of Futility
December 8, 2014, 9 years ago
(Dark Descent Records)
I'm not exaggerating when I say releases like this outrageously dark and dense and difficult blackened death album from Edmonton's Dire Omen make me proud to be Canadian. This album, with its incredibly antagonistic vibe and thorny, ugly sounds bring to mind the black-hole swarm of Portal or Gorguts, but take the philosophy books out of the jam room and replace them with books about how to be the heaviest band in the world. Also pleased as (black) punch that these guys have signed to the mighty Dark Descent for their debut, the label being one of the best around right now for precisely this kind of sound, the Incantation-meets-sludgey-war-metal, the blackthrash-by-way-of-Immolation, a sound that just crushes everything in its path due to the pure awesomeness of it. Listen to the first 37 seconds of "Foretold Untethering From Existence" and tell me it doesn't rule. Listen to the rest of the album and tell me it doesn't rule. If you do tell me that, you're wrong: it does rule. This massive, dominating album is a must-hear, the band already on the forefront of what I consider to be one of the most exciting sounds in the extreme underground in 2014; looking forward to seeing where they ride their black tar death sludge to next time out.
