OMEN - Eternal Black Dawn
September 22, 2003, 20 years ago
(Crash)
Man oh man, if you want original American, on-the-cheap epic metal, than look no further than this second comeback album by one of the styles original fringe players, Omen. The band's sound is a mix of early Fates Warning, Warlord, Culprit, Lizzy Borden, Jack Starr, and Wild Dogs, maybe a little Solitude Aeternus in there as well, and the debut Force Of Evil album, for god's sake. That is to say, Omen play an old school barroom purist metal somewhere between power metal before there was such a thing and thrash before it got all that technical. Ah hell, how do you rate something like this? Fact is, you don't know if it's all done grievously and cannily on purpose or if it was the best they could do? Fans of the mortar and the glue and the sod holding together the underground metal of the late '80s should experience that same type of oneness with this thing. Others too young to know or care will say, man, this sounds old.
