Band:	Omnivortex
Album:	Circulate
Style:	Technical death metal
Release date:	September 2023

01. Dwells
02. Transforming To Pale Mist
03. Of Aeons Past
04. Slumbering In Black
05. Mechanical Motions
06. Husk
07. Harbingers Of Cosmic Death
08. Endless

In assembling nominees for the Metal Storm Awards, I tend to see fluctuations in quality for different genres year on year. After several very strong years for the genre, I’ve been a bit underwhelmed by death metal in 2023; however, Omnivortex have revealed themselves to be a diamond amongst the rough that is their competition.

Having formed in 2019, this Finnish quartet are fresh-faced (the only member with any prior history in our database is guitarist Mikko Pylkkö, courtesy of their brief stint in Human Sculpture), and their approach to death metal is also of a newer slant. There isn’t any one particular death metal subgenre that sophomore album Circulate easily falls into; there’s elements of dissonance, but not consistently enough to be categorized as disso-death, and there’s also tech-death and prog aspects to the album, but it’s not aggressively tech-death. In terms of other currently active bands, the one that perhaps most strongly comes to mind when listening to Circulate is Hath (a comparison that feels particularly apt on “Of Aeons Past”), but there’s arguably a greater sense of weirdness to parts of this album than what Hath have delivered on their own two releases to date. In essence, Circulate is an amalgamation of many of the best aspects of modern death metal, packaged in a concise and destructive package.

Circulate is an album that starts out as it means to go on: strongly. “Dwells” has thick, hooky, vicious riffs, memorable repeated motifs, meaty percussion, and subtle disso-death moments; it also shows the first sign that Omnivortex are willing to play around with cleaner tones, by featuring a slick bass-driven soft section briefly in the middle. It’s the kind of song that makes such a firm first impression that you fear that the band has potentially blown their load too soon, but thankfully the album offers consistent quality on pretty much every song after. “Transforming To Pale Mist” initially feels like it lacks a bit of the character of “Dwells”, but when it throws in some dazzling guitar harmonies and then a mean atmospheric trudge midway through, it immediately makes a strong case for its inclusion.

I mentioned ‘weirdness’ earlier in the review; the most obvious example of this is “Mechanical Motions”. It’s not weird to start with, offering some dark, vicious death metal attack, but the tapped guitar leads in the ‘chorus’ already conjure up a certain eeriness, and the guitar solo (and later duet) is quite striking. However, it’s more the demented dissonant solo near the end and glitching final seconds that really draw one’s attention. This song marks the beginning of a slightly more ‘adventurous’ second half to Circulate, whether it be the proggy detour and blackened climax of “Husk”, or the subtle melodic layers in the relentless assault that is “Harbingers Of Cosmic Death”.

Still, Omnivortex arguably save the best for last; the fiercest competition that “Dwells” has for the album’s best track comes from closing song “Endless”, albeit for different reasons. In contrast to the ferocious hookiness of the album opener, this concluding song slows things down, opting for a more brooding feel. It also expands the album’s melodicism; there’s a passage later on where the harsh vocals that dominate the record are backed up by faint cleans, and the following guitar arrangements incorporate a gloomier, more evocative touch, before rounding out the record with sullen acoustic guitar.

While it’s not quite the revelation that Hath’s sophomore album All That Was Promised was, Circulate is a comparably impressive second album from Omnivortex. If, like me, you’ve found yourself a bit underwhelmed by what death metal has had to offer this year, I strongly encourage you to give this record a try.