OMNIO

A surprise find for me as I found myself actually liking this music quite a bit. Strong vocals (male and female) and entertaining double lead guitars over competent metal compositions led me to reminders of 70s stallwarts, Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy, Blue Öyster Cult, and Peter Hammill. I was not expecting the clever and creative uses of the electric guitars over the course of the album.

1. "299 796 km/s" (14:46) one of the best long-playing prog epics of the 1990s! (28.5/30) 2. "I Am Your Flesh" (7:07) Cool composition with heavy and light/spacious sections alternating throughout. Great lead guitar work in the B parts. The vocals are engineered a bit oddly (as if from the 1970s). As a matter of fact, it's the vocal parts that are, for me, the weak part of this song, otherwise, I love this song. (13.25/15)

3. "Kairos!" (3:34) muted & echoed electric guitar arpeggi stand alone for the first 40 seconds of this one. Then a burst of heavy chords and slow drum and bass establishes itself as the structure over which a female vocalist sings. Great song, great vocal! (9.25/10)

4. "Weeping Willow" (11:40) sustained buzzing lead guitar notes are slowly faded in and then joined by second cleaner guitar and keys. At 1:17 a guitar riff establishes the foundation for the rest of the song. Multiple voices enter, with one low male voice taking center fore. Piano joins in, too. Then, at 2:40 comes a drastic switch to a more steady driving motif with fast-strumming electric guitars using only their low end strings. The pace is still not very fast and the vocal more deep and ominous and slow--not unlike some PETER HAMMILL vocals (and thus the lyrics are very clear). Back to the slower pace for a bit before switching back to hard-driving mode at the 5:20 mark for some instrumental action. At 6:20 vocals return but multiple guitars are still soloing (albeit, slowly). At 6:50 slow guitar arpeggi take over as dominant under structure for the singing to continue in his low, slow PETER HAMMILL voice. More guitar soloing in the ninth and tenth minutes. Even as the song slows and winds down in the final 90 seconds, the two guitars continue to play off of one another. (18/20)

- "Omnio?" (43.25/50) 5. Pre (12:00) highlighted by the two main catchy guitar riffs and the contrast of the deep male voice with the operatic soprano female. Cool! (23/25) 6. "Bardo" (5:55) heavy use of synths (who's playing?) and STEVE HILLAGE-like space guitar until Pink Floyd-like bass and drums enters halfway through and space synths (guitars?) start going bat crazy. Culminates with scream and crescendo of sound. (9/10) 7. "Post" (8:09) opens with piano and bass before dropping away into a "Great Gig in the Sky" accompaniment to Synne Larsen's impassioned-though-worded vocal. Piano and female voice exit in 20th minute as thick multi-guitar weave takes over. AT 20:30 multi-tracks of Jan Kennet's low voice enter. This is awesome! In the 22nd minute, the pace changes, the voice shifts to upper octave power vocal. An alternation with the slower, female-led section occurs twice before we return to "Great Gig" theme, only with electric guitar and Jan Kennet performing the music over the slow, steady rock drum track. Nice, plaintive vocal. Then things re-amp for the final 90 seconds. (13/15)

Total Time: 63:11

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of progressive rock music and one of the better Prog Metal albums I've heard from the 1990s.