Band:	Omnium Gatherum
Album:	Spirits And August Light
Style:	Melodic death metal
Release date:	February 24, 2003
Guest review by:	Milena

01. Writhen
02. Deathwhite
03. The Perfumed Garden
04. Amor Tonight
05. Cure A Wound
06. The Emptiness Of Spirit
07. Wastrel
08. Son's Thoughts
09. It Shines

Omnium Gatherum's latest effort, New World Shadows certainly caused a lot of hype this year at Metal Storm with 392 user ratings averaging it at 8,40. An impressive score, but that is not the statistic that interests me. According to Metal Storm, around 300 people who rated it are not fans of the band - and it can be assumed that at least half of them were introduced to Omnium Gatherum in 2011. Well, this review is targeted at you.

When checking out a band's back catalogue from the bottom up, there's always fear that the older albums will be inexperienced or lacking direction. Fear not, Omnium Gatherum had all their basses covered with Spirits and August Light. This is not entirely similar to the sounds we hear on New World Shadows or The Redshift. We've got a different man handling the vocals, although Jukka Pelkonen's lovely growls (a paradox, isn't it?) can be heard on two of the songs. Antti Filppu's vocal style, although somewhat annoying at first but after getting used to it, fits the album quite well. Also, this is more disjointed and confusing than their more famous release. The riff-based music includes many intricate guitar licks and solos striving to get your attention. You will also be exposed to sudden changes of atmosphere, so bring your umbrellas for the mind. This is a more speedy and even teen-angsty version of Omnium Gatherum.

Mentioning the similarities this is still melodic death metal loosely based on the early works of the Gothenburg greats, appropriately modern and flirting with mainstream appeal. Taking the flirting metaphor literally though, one could conclude the mainstream finds this particular genre to be quite an ugly broad and prefers it with lots of make-up. The quality of the songwriting is pretty much the same, as I do find New World Shadows to be just a tad overrated. Both are slick, moderately technical, well-performed and elegant - it takes more than that to be monumental though.

Lyrics are a very important aspect of this band. Seems that every album of theirs has lyrical perks of its own, both in writing and in printing - this one has sentences divided by dashes, dividing words to make an interesting effect ("dis ease", anyone?), made up words, wonderfully emotional and silly lyrics, sometimes deep and at other moments simply plain. There's an obvious effort (or a whimsical lack of one) put into them, as well as the whole album, a release that will amuse you.

Something curious for the conclusion - "Wastrel" and "Son's Thoughts" have very different but equally awesome early versions of them in the band's first EP which deserve to be checked out. Along with those tracks, my personal favourite is "The Perfumed Garden".