Overoth To Release “The Forgotten Tome” Via Hostile Media on 22 September 2017
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Pulsing drums, heavy guitar, and deep guttural screams are the backbones of the music genre known as death metal. The Irish metal band known as Overoth delivers all of this, as well as their own infusion of orchestral music interlaid into the mix, creating a brutally heavy yet harmonious album.
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The band had stated “We’ve been working on this album for what seems like an aeon, but finally we’re pleased to announce that our hard work and determination for perfection has come to a close. We actually tracked the drums, guitars and vocals for this album around two years ago, and we had planned to add some subtle orchestration as we had done in our debut Kingdom Of Shadows… however… when Dan (guitars) got started, the songs yearned for much more than we had anticipated. It would be further months of writing, from violins to piano, to the use of ancient instruments like the duduk and ney flute and then back and forwards with mixing.”
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The long-awaited album “The Forgotten Tome” is set to be released on the 22nd of September via Hostile Media. They give us ten tracks that are adrenaline producing, headbanging masterpieces that will bring back some originality to the death metal genre. Each song seems to slowly build in depth and tempo, either with the subtle insertion of orchestral instruments, or the underlying structure of the song.
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Overoth starts off the album with their intro track “Opus Obscura”, which is a full orchestral instrumental. This is the perfect intro song, as it starts off slow and foreboding, slowly adding more instruments, until it perfectly transitions into the following track “Sigil Of The Empty Throne”. This song is where shit starts to get serious. The intermixing of tempos followed by Andy’s (bass & vocals) guttural screams, and the underlying insertion of violin and piano makes the soul yearn for more. “Winter Of Iniquity” keeps things going by slowly building into a blast-beat assault of vocals and drums. The delivery of their lyrics really puts you in a dark mindset of what feels like the feudal ages, which is part of what sets them apart from others. The band backs this up by saying “Lyrically, for the most part this collection of tales at a first glance would appear fantasy based, with fables of war and magic, good and evil, but actually there is a more human narrative underlying each song. We have our own interpretation of these stories, and we hope that people can find it or come up with some other moral of their own.”
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“The Keeper” shows the mastery of Andy’s vocals as he is able to harmonize his guttural screams with the energetic blasting of the drums and guitar. Rhythmic chanting and a slow drum beat transitions into the next song “God Of Delusion”. If there was ever a perfect example of what death metal is, I would have to say that this would be it. Fast guitar riffs and double-bass pedals strike from the very beginning, and the lyrics tell a bleak truth of blindly following a mind-narrowing faith created by man. “The Forgotten Tome” is an incredible addition to the album with its heavy elongated guitar riffs and drum patterns. Following is “Leviathan Swallowed The Sun”, being an epic instrumental started with a belting of orchestral vocals. It continues into an onslaught of orchestral instruments, and the time the band had spent recording all of those instruments became evident in this song. “Mar The Gates” once again puts the listener into an atmosphere of doom with dark lyrical content and a heavy, upbeat tempo. “Harbinger Of The End Times” shows the band’s versatility of instruments as they proficiently interweave more orchestral instruments such as violin and piano. Something about the combination of these two different genres is just way too fucking perfect in my opinion. The album ends with “Shadows In A Thousand Shades Of Black”. It’s a very fitting end track that is interlaid with many intricate changing of up-tempo instrumentals into the crawling chugs of breakdowns. Like an ebbing tide, the last song ends with an orchestra just like the intro, which was beautifully done.
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‘The Forgotten Tome’ does two things very beautifully: it tells a dark story of good and evil through myths and lore, and not only that, but also leaves the meaning of each song up for debate. This and the addition of an orchestra are what made this album work so perfectly.
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For More On The Band:
www.overoth.com
www.facebook.com/overothband
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