Band:	Omicida
Album:	Certain Death
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	May 01, 2015
Guest review by:	The_Hellion

01. Cult Of Fear
02. Certain Death
03. Disobey
04. Star Striped Death
05. Into The Abyss
06. Strike Back
07. The Unbroken Seal

I guess there's no way to introduce new ideas or innovate when talking about thrash metal; but, so what? Thrash metal is about destruction, speed, and headbanging. Omicida is as concise as a band can be. There is no pretentiousness in this album, only straightforward music.

Although speed is not an issue in this album, the riffs are fairly simple. I mean, the riffs are good, but there is nothing memorable. I don't know if doing memorable stuff is a thing of the past, but I've heard other relatively new thrash bands like Havok, for example, that focus mainly on speed rather than creating those kind of riffs that stick into your head forever.

Omicida play as if they were ten years younger, and that's something I like about new (or not classic) thrash metal bands: they give it their all, they have nothing to lose, and no one to disappoint. I'm not lying when I say all songs are equally enjoyable, but this also means all the songs sound more or less similar; fortunately thrash metal is so energetic that you just can't get bored by, in this case, 27 minutes of songs with a similar pace.

Another aspect to add points to Certain Death is that there are seven songs and seven solos. This is something distinctive of thrash metal. Solos matter. Yes, they followed the "solos for every song" rule, but again, there is nothing remarkable, only noticeable and enjoyable. They did a good job with their intros in "Certain Death" and "Unbroken Seal." These short intros give a different identity to the songs and kind of separate them from the others.

If you pay close attention, you'll see that not everything is predictable in this album. The initial riff in "Disobey" (which they return to later on) and "Star Striped Death" have a pinch of death metal in them, which is not a bad combination at all. Another element I thought was unexpected is the pipe organ in "Cult Of Fear," or Giovanni Barbieri's melodic voice on "Into The Abyss." Small aspects like these ones will catch your attention after you thought you knew the whole album after the first two or three songs.

I'm not a huge fan of abrupt endings, and this album has a lot them (which is obviously premeditated). My guess is this is another way to show how they want to do things their way. "Certain Death," "Strike Back," and "Unbroken Seal" are the songs I found more interesting, but overall, all songs are well executed. This is a highly recommendable album. I listened to it over nine times (some days more than once) to write this review and I still can't get enough of it.