Ominous Resurrection

Omniscient

Omnifying the Obscure

dB Rating: 8/10

Release Date: November 19th, 2014
Label: Funeral Industries

Ominous Resurrection are one of those bands that, for me, needed no place of origin or being. I procured their demo some months ago via an online trade with a Belgian. Then, while jamming the demo one night, my friend asked where Ominous Resurrection were from. I discovered that not only are they from NYC, but their guitarist/vocalist “Diabolic Gulgalta” also plays guitar in Negative Plane. Suddenly the spooky organ leads, the hollow, recorded-in-an-oubliette drums, the monotone chanting and their lashing serpent-tail riffs all made perfect sense. I realized also that I didn’t have to wait to buy Omniscient, their debut LP, from the sole (and ethically questionable) U.S. distro that was to carry it. Instead, I went straight to the source, emailing the band themselves.

All three songs from the demo have been re-recorded for Omniscient. This is common practice, though seldom are songs better for it. In the instance of Ominous Resurrection, whose demo sounds like it was recorded live in their rehearsal space using a phonautograph, the re-recording works in their favor. The best song from the demo, “Lifting of the Veil,” remains the best song on the full-length, but the other demo tracks—plus the three new song—are close behind it.

Ominous Resurrection, like their brother bands Negative Plane and Funereal Presence, play black metal that defies your preconceived notions of that oversaturated genre. And omnipresent throughout Omniscient are moments of true novelty sure to make you genuflect from the neck up.

— Dutch Pearce
Review originally printed in the June 2015 issue (#128).