Death is June- Omnium Gatherum : "Slasher"

 Omnium Gartherum is one of those band's whose names you seen adorning European metal festivals and has a decent following that has allowed them to release 9 full length albums over the course of their career which has been in motion since the late 90s though their first full length was released 20 years ago. They celebrate their 20 years cranking out albums with this release. "Slasher" also serves as a  showcase for  their new guitarist Nick Cordle who has played with Arch Enemy and Arsis. The title track that opens the album pretty much just sounds like any European melodic death metal band that is going in a more orchestrated direction and not trying to be In Flames. 

The cover of the "Flashdance' staple "Maniac" originally performed by one hit wonder Michael Sembello, might be the high light, which tells you the generic nature of what goes down on the album as a whole, which is growled vocals, with the occasional sung passage, and lots of keyboards providing texture. What their cover gets right is the use of keyboards, which on a song like "Sacred" feels like this are just punching the clock using most of the elements I dislike about this sort of thing. I think what I dislike the most about it is how it lacks a tangible feeling of darkness. This is weird when you consider how Finland is normally ripe with goth tinged metal bands. A mood that is not extended to death metal. 

They do get a little darker on the last song with the vocals taking on a low spoken baritone . The guitars however go in a more rock n roll direction rather than blending what works for them as a death metal band.  The dynamic shift when they do kick it, is effective but this sounds like it came out in 1995. The most telling thing, is when I leave the album on and just let it play it sounds like the first song becomes and extension of the last song as their sound is so uniform making the cover the only stand out. I think rounding this down to an 8, is a fair assessment as it takes into consideration that they do care about songs and are good at what they do what they do is just not what I want from death metal as it is not heavy or dark enough for my tastes.