Band:	In The Woods...
Album:	Omnio
Style:	Avantgarde metal, Progressive metal
Release date:	1997
Guest review by:	Ch'ti

01. 299.796 km/s
02. I Am Your Flesh
03. Kairos!
04. Weeping Willow
05. Omnio (Pre)
06. Omnio (Bardo)
07. Omnio (Post)

A good fusion of two genres that at first glance have nothing in common, or at least not enough to make you think that a band would one day decide to merge them.

Well, what I can say; already during the first listen, the construction of the music, and the atmosphere that results from it, is one of the strong points of Omnio. Listeners can clearly recognize its avant-garde nature, with the rather original use of guitar sounds and riffs commonly used in black metal, contrasted by the rest of the instruments, the vocals included, which are in fairly classic progressive metal territory. The mix is ​​really good and makes the progressive side of the album much more interesting.

The instruments were generally well mastered, such as the bass, which is magnificently played in the first track, but the obvious poor production of the album spoils the whole thing a little.

The female vocals line up quite well with those of the main vocalist; however, I must say that, at times, the vocals are not exceptional, sometimes mediocre. At other times, as in the song "Weeping Willow", the vocalist is a little more convincing, and even sometimes (and I mean sometimes) reminded me a little of the vocals in the album This Godless Endeavor from Nevermore.

The second part of the album is less interesting, mainly because we lose elements that until then made Omnio rather innovative. The guitars are less saturated, and change style to move from black metal to much more classic progressive metal. Certainly, there are good riffs, like in the track "Omnio? - Pre", but knowing that until then it was the sound of the guitars that made the album so special, [band]In The Woods...[/ band] failed to recover after this change.

There are still some positive points; the strange sounds in "Omnio? - Bardo", for example, fit in quite well and liven up the almost dilapidated atmosphere of the album a little. For the parts that are a little more disappointing, I can talk about the piano in "Omnio? - Post", which, although rather pretty, I don't see the point, because the style is too classic, and completely drifts from the avant-garde side of the beginning of Omnio.

Despite the negative points stated, In The Woods... still produced a good album; objectively I cannot say the opposite. However, the band failed to keep a certain continuity in Omnio, which results in an album with two rather unbalanced parts: at the beginning, a very avant-garde sound tinged with progressive metal, and at the end, a very progressive sound tinged with avant-gardism. Overall, I think Omnio is a good album, but it missed its chance to be truly unique, by gradually removing the black metal elements from its sound.