Omniscience - The Coming of Iona

Since the age of times, Metal music has evolved mightily. And so has Black Metal. Many bands, after the search-of-the-speed-of-light era, chose a musical path that envolved more puzzling guitar lines, vocals much more than the gutural purging, and adding keyboards gave their music the possibility of more atmospheric and aerial sounds. I perceived that evolution sometime ago, and that’s what made me go black. Of course, sometimes we need, and want, a raw and straight ahead music, but not always. Even the lyrics have changed a lot too. A much bigger variety of themes were added, not only that satanic talk. And that aired Black Metal. It made it bigger, still controvertial, but bigger, edgy again.

Omniscience chose the path I’m talking about in the single “The Coming of Iona”. And much more, they went dark without mentioning the dark. You can feel the pain in your bones. The dense atmosphere they created gets you and don’t let you go. “The Coming of Iona” is a thirteen minute track, but in no moment you feel it. The music involves you, takes you to a travel, a dark travel thought, of suffering, pain, and despair, but who has never felt them in this full of evil world?

I really like when bands mix those angelical female vocals with hellish male ones. And Omniscience knew how to bring that to thier music. Musically speaking, they used a resource that has been used a lot in modern Black Metal, which is the repetition of harmonic structures to create an insane, and even thicker sound. Some lines are repeated to exhaustion, but they are so smooth that you don’t get bored. I’m sure “The Coming of Iona” will please hardcore Black Metal fans as it pleased someone that is not really found of it.

The official lyric video is available at https://youtu.be/aaYSmVqlvVY.