Omnium Gatherum Want/Need Your Skulls

In the decade-and-a-half of Decibel’s existence, there hasn’t been much love given to Finnish melodi-death masters, Omnium Gatherum. The guy who runs things around here would probably list off a number of compelling and cogent reasons for that. Hell, even guitarist and lone original member, Markus Vanhala, admits that the band he formed in 1996 at the ripe old age of 14 didn’t truly find its stride until 2008’s The Redshift. Still, there’s a small minority of us ‘round these parts who don’t mind their death metal periodically slathered in saccharine and dusted with Sweet ‘n Low and given that the veterans from Karhula are one of the subgenre’s better examples, I’m going to do my part to help shine a little light on ‘em. The band’s forthcoming and eighth album is entitled The Burning Cold and below you can scope out the video for first single “Gods Go First.” After that, read what Vanhala had to say when we asked about the theme behind the new album’s title and cover art.

“There are a lot of stories behind the title of the new album. [Vocalist] Jukka [Pelkonen] has always in the past made OG kind of like thinking man’s metal with his lyrics and there’s always been great stories and things on the albums. The new album basically deals with two dimensions: the outside world and the inner world, which is more like a personal estate. It’s about the modern times, basically. Things in the world are going in a failing direction at the moment. Sometimes it feels like the whole world is burning, leaders are making very bad decisions and not thinking in the long run and overall intensity is growing too much at the moment. People are feeling really strong hate or injustice toward everything and we are living a sensitive lifestyle that social media has created. People have been left with very sensitive minds and are thinking too much about the ‘wrong’ things while leaders of the world are doing bad things in secrecy. That’s basically what The Burning Cold is about. There’s the outside world and in the inner world, people’s emotional scales are pumped up to the maximum with all sorts of stimuli 24/7. All the feelings, from love to hate, have become more public than maybe they should. It’s especially true if you look at kids who are living more on the internet than in the real world and it’s making them ill and sick. Everyone is on an emotional rollercoaster and going over a waterfall and that’s basically what the album is dealing with, the great mystery of life.

“The cover was basically my idea and I said it had to show cold and burning at the same time as well as a pile of skulls. We wanted to come back to this kind of 90s death metal vision even if our music doesn’t have anything to do with real death metal bands like Obituary or Entombed. But that’s what we grew up with and if you’re playing death metal, you have to have skulls so there’s a pile of skulls!”

 

The Burning Cold is out on August 31st via Century Media. After its release, the band will celebrate with a big-ass North American tour:

NORTH AMERICAN TOUR 2018
Sept. 7 – New York, N.Y. @ Gramercy Theater
Sept. 8 – Montreal, Quebec @ Corona Theatre
Sept. 9 – Quebec City, Quebec @ Imperial de Quebec
Sept. 10 – Toronto, Ontario @ Opera House
Sept. 11 – Ft Wayne, Ind. @ Pierre’s
Sept. 12 – Detroit, Mich. @ Harpo’s
Sept. 13 – Joliet, Ill. @ The Forge
Sept. 14 – Minneapolis, Minn. @ The Cabooze
Sept. 15 – Winnipeg, Manitoba @ Park Theatre
Sept. 17 – Edmonton, Alberta @ The Starlite Room
Sept. 18 – Calgary, Alberta @ Dickens
Sept. 19 – Vancouver, British Columbia @ Rickshaw Theater
Sept. 20 – Seattle, Wash. @ El Corazon
Sept. 22 – Berkeley, Calif. @ The UC Theatre
Sept. 23 – Anaheim, Calif. @ City National Grove
Sept. 24 – West Hollywood, Calif. @ Whiskey a Go Go
Sept. 25 – San Diego, Calif. @ Brick By Brick
Sept. 26 – Tempe, Ariz. @ Marquee Theatre
Sept. 27 – Las Vegas, Nev. @ House of Blues
Sept. 28 – Salt Lake City, Utah @ Liquid joe’s
Sept. 29 – Denver, Colo. @ Herman’s Hideaway
Oct. 1 – Dallas, Tex. @ Trees
Oct. 2 – San Antonio, Tex. @ Rock Box
Oct. 3 – Houston, Tex. @ Scout Bar
Oct. 5 – Tampa, Fla. @ Orpheum
Oct. 6 – West Palm Beach, Fla. @ Kelsey Theater
Oct. 7 – Atlanta, Ga. @ The Masquerade
Oct. 9 – Louisville, Ky. @ Diamond Pub and Billiards
Oct. 10 – Durham, N.C. @ Motorco
Oct. 11 – Baltimore, Md. @ Soundstage
Oct. 12 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ The Trocadero
Oct. 12 – Worcester, Ma @ The Palladium
Oct. 14 – Clifton Park, N.Y. @ Upstate Concert Hall

www.omniumgatherum.org