Omnium Gatherum
Encyclopedia
Omnium Gatherum is a six-piece melodic death metal
band from Finland
, founded in the autumn of 1996. Although the band mainly follows the path of melodic death metal
genre, the music created by the band, especially the later albums, has a strong feel/presence of other sub-genres, such as black metal
and pure death metal
.
April 2003 via Rage Of Achilles and gave the band some well-deserved
attention within the underground metal community and the press. The
album showed another side to the light: despite the clear and catchy
melodies and the stable rhythm all along the way it had a lifelike
taste of dirtiness to it, with desperate love and uninvited hate
searching for an outlet, like something you didn't want to see happen
but it did nonetheless.
Next in line to be was the band signing to a metal giant label Nuclear
Blast in the autumn of 2004 to release the second album "Years In
Waste". More technical, more progressive, more sophisticated but at
the same time colder and moving away from the listener was the new
recipe that was completed with themes from the wasted youth,
depression and soul-loss, shamanistic metaphors leading the two-fold
way back in time while the moon shone stranger than ever. It is always
darkest right before the morning.
In spring 2006 an era came to an end in OG and the long-time singer Antti Filppu was replaced by Jukka
Pelkonen aka J.
"Stuck Here On Snakes Way" was the debut OG album featuring J on
vocals and it was released in April 2007 after a successful UK tour
and a signing to Candlelight Records. "Snakes Way" is an endless road
dealing with the choices in our existence and the temptation within
the mind of every soul on this third planet of ours, and unfortunately
so many people are stuck... The band didn't get stuck with the album
and the "Snakes Way" conducted the band to do tours with Dark
Tranquillity, Caliban and Entombed, spiced with a large amount of
Finnish headlining gigs and the #31 position in the Finnish national
album chart!
Omnium Gatherum's 4th album "The Redshift" was nailed and furled at Sound Supreme and SouthEastSounds Studios during the spring days of 2008 and it was mixed and mastered at Unisound Studio in Sweden by the legendary metal-mastermind Dan Swanö, who commented the album with his nice words: "I hate bands like Omnium Gatherum, they are so good it pisses me off!!! Their fine blend of melody and aggression is so good I actually thought about stealing the record and releasing it as my own :) You won´t find a better album in years."
Their 2008 album The Redshift had generally positive reviews, inked band to do long European tours with Nile/Grave in 2008 and Swallow The Sun/Insomnium in 2009 and even charting in Finnish official album chart to position #24.
In the summer of 2008 Bassist Eerik Purdon announced that he will be leaving Omnium Gatherum, and In 2009 Toni Mäki Officially joined Omnium Gatherum as their new Bassist.
In August 2010 Omnium Gatherum announced that they have inked a deal with Lifeforce Records for their next release, and also that their longtime rhythm guitarist Harri Pikka has left the band. Their official statement read "We're really sorry to announce also that Harri Pikka has silently decided to flee the OG crew after 13 years of solid service. We don't know his exact reasons for this but maybe someday mr. Mystery Man tells us… :) At the moment we've decided to finish the new album as a 5-piece unit, but we have the best possible live guitar unit called Joonas Koto (Malpractice / Ex-To/Die/For / Ex-Hateframe) filling the second guitar live duties at the moment and it rocks!" Omnium Gatherum entered the Studio to record their 5th currently untitled studio album for an eairly 2011 release. Lead Guitarist Markus Vanhala will be handling all guitar parts for the recording. Mixing and Mastering will once again be handled by Dan Swano.
"New World Shadows", the fifth full-length studio album of Omnium Gatherum was released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on February 4. 2011, Finland, Sweden and Hungary on February 9., the rest of Europe on February 7. and North America on March 1. "New World Shadows" topped the Finnish album charts and was on the 5th position on official national album chart and was on the 1st position in Finnish Rumba indie chart!
The album is the band's first to be released via Lifeforce Records. It was recorded during the period August 2010 - October 2010. After the album release, Omnium Gatherum toured Europe with Rotting Christ in April/May 2011.
New World Shadows is critically acclaimed, and is considered to be one of the best melodic death metal albums in Finnish metal. It is renowned for the mixture of harmonizing melodies along with typical death/heavy metal guitars and drumming. The vocal styles vary from deep death growls to clean vocals. The sound of the album is epic and progressive.
On June 17 it was announced that Joonas "Jope" Koto has joined Omnium Gatherum as their new full-time second guitarist, replacing Harri Pikka, who left the band in 2010.
Melodic death metal
Melodic death metal is a heavy metal music style that combines elements from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with elements of death metal. The style was developed during the early and mid-1990s, primarily in England and Scandinavia...
band from Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, founded in the autumn of 1996. Although the band mainly follows the path of melodic death metal
Melodic death metal
Melodic death metal is a heavy metal music style that combines elements from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with elements of death metal. The style was developed during the early and mid-1990s, primarily in England and Scandinavia...
genre, the music created by the band, especially the later albums, has a strong feel/presence of other sub-genres, such as black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
and pure death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
.
Biography
After releasing four demos, they were signed to Rage of Achilles, The debut full-length album "Spirits And August Light" was released inApril 2003 via Rage Of Achilles and gave the band some well-deserved
attention within the underground metal community and the press. The
album showed another side to the light: despite the clear and catchy
melodies and the stable rhythm all along the way it had a lifelike
taste of dirtiness to it, with desperate love and uninvited hate
searching for an outlet, like something you didn't want to see happen
but it did nonetheless.
Next in line to be was the band signing to a metal giant label Nuclear
Blast in the autumn of 2004 to release the second album "Years In
Waste". More technical, more progressive, more sophisticated but at
the same time colder and moving away from the listener was the new
recipe that was completed with themes from the wasted youth,
depression and soul-loss, shamanistic metaphors leading the two-fold
way back in time while the moon shone stranger than ever. It is always
darkest right before the morning.
In spring 2006 an era came to an end in OG and the long-time singer Antti Filppu was replaced by Jukka
Pelkonen aka J.
"Stuck Here On Snakes Way" was the debut OG album featuring J on
vocals and it was released in April 2007 after a successful UK tour
and a signing to Candlelight Records. "Snakes Way" is an endless road
dealing with the choices in our existence and the temptation within
the mind of every soul on this third planet of ours, and unfortunately
so many people are stuck... The band didn't get stuck with the album
and the "Snakes Way" conducted the band to do tours with Dark
Tranquillity, Caliban and Entombed, spiced with a large amount of
Finnish headlining gigs and the #31 position in the Finnish national
album chart!
Omnium Gatherum's 4th album "The Redshift" was nailed and furled at Sound Supreme and SouthEastSounds Studios during the spring days of 2008 and it was mixed and mastered at Unisound Studio in Sweden by the legendary metal-mastermind Dan Swanö, who commented the album with his nice words: "I hate bands like Omnium Gatherum, they are so good it pisses me off!!! Their fine blend of melody and aggression is so good I actually thought about stealing the record and releasing it as my own :) You won´t find a better album in years."
Their 2008 album The Redshift had generally positive reviews, inked band to do long European tours with Nile/Grave in 2008 and Swallow The Sun/Insomnium in 2009 and even charting in Finnish official album chart to position #24.
In the summer of 2008 Bassist Eerik Purdon announced that he will be leaving Omnium Gatherum, and In 2009 Toni Mäki Officially joined Omnium Gatherum as their new Bassist.
In August 2010 Omnium Gatherum announced that they have inked a deal with Lifeforce Records for their next release, and also that their longtime rhythm guitarist Harri Pikka has left the band. Their official statement read "We're really sorry to announce also that Harri Pikka has silently decided to flee the OG crew after 13 years of solid service. We don't know his exact reasons for this but maybe someday mr. Mystery Man tells us… :) At the moment we've decided to finish the new album as a 5-piece unit, but we have the best possible live guitar unit called Joonas Koto (Malpractice / Ex-To/Die/For / Ex-Hateframe) filling the second guitar live duties at the moment and it rocks!" Omnium Gatherum entered the Studio to record their 5th currently untitled studio album for an eairly 2011 release. Lead Guitarist Markus Vanhala will be handling all guitar parts for the recording. Mixing and Mastering will once again be handled by Dan Swano.
"New World Shadows", the fifth full-length studio album of Omnium Gatherum was released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on February 4. 2011, Finland, Sweden and Hungary on February 9., the rest of Europe on February 7. and North America on March 1. "New World Shadows" topped the Finnish album charts and was on the 5th position on official national album chart and was on the 1st position in Finnish Rumba indie chart!
The album is the band's first to be released via Lifeforce Records. It was recorded during the period August 2010 - October 2010. After the album release, Omnium Gatherum toured Europe with Rotting Christ in April/May 2011.
New World Shadows is critically acclaimed, and is considered to be one of the best melodic death metal albums in Finnish metal. It is renowned for the mixture of harmonizing melodies along with typical death/heavy metal guitars and drumming. The vocal styles vary from deep death growls to clean vocals. The sound of the album is epic and progressive.
On June 17 it was announced that Joonas "Jope" Koto has joined Omnium Gatherum as their new full-time second guitarist, replacing Harri Pikka, who left the band in 2010.
Current members
- Jukka Pelkonen – vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
(2006–) - Markus Vanhala – guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
(1996–) - Joonas "Jope" Koto – guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
(2011-) - Aapo Koivisto – keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
(2005–) - Toni "Tsygä" Mäki – bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
(2009–) - Jarmo Pikka – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
(1999–)
Former members
- Harri Pikka – guitar (1997–2010)
- Olli Lappalainen – guitar & vocals (1996–2000)
- Olli Mikkonen – bass (1996–1997)
- Mikko Nykänen – keyboards (1996–1999)
- Ville Salonen (1996–1999)
- Jari Kuusisto – bass (1997–1998)
- Janne Markkanen – bass (1998–2007)
- Antti Filppu – vocals (2000–2006)
- Mikko Pennanen – keyboards (2001–2002)
- Jukka Perälä – keyboards (2003–2005)
- Eerik Purdon – bass (2007–2008)
Live members
- Joonas 'Jope' Koto (To/Die/ForTo/Die/ForTo/Die/For is a gothic metal band from the town of Kouvola in southeast of Finland, assembled in 1993 as a hard rock band under the name Mary-Ann. In 1999, they decided to change their musical style to gothic metal, changing their band name as well...
) – guitar (2 May 2009 and 13 June 2009, 2010-)
Discography
- Steal the Light (EP, Rage of Achilles, 2002)
- Spirits and August Light (CD, Rage of Achilles, 2003)
- Years in WasteYears in Waste-Credits:*Antti Filppu - Vocals*Markus Vanhala - Guitar*Harri Pikka - Guitar*Janne Markkanen - Bass*Jukka Perälä - Synth*Jarmo Pikka - Drums...
(CD, Nuclear BlastNuclear BlastNuclear Blast is an independent record label and mail order record distributor with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. The record label was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Germany. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label moved on to releasing albums by melodic...
, 2004) - Stuck Here on Snakes WayStuck Here on Snakes WayStuck Here on Snakes Way is the third album from Omnium Gatherum released in 2007. It is the band's first release on Candlelight Records.-Track listing:-Credits:*Jukka Pelkonen: Vocals*Markus Vanhala: Guitar*Harri Pikka: Guitar*Janne Markkanen: Bass...
(CD, Candlelight RecordsCandlelight RecordsCandlelight Records is an independent record label based in Europe founded by former Extreme Noise Terror bassist Lee Barrett, though it has had a division in the United States since January 2001. Candlelight Records specialises in black metal and death metal, having bands such as Emperor,...
, 2007) - The RedshiftThe RedshiftThe Redshift is the fourth album from the Finnish melodic death metal band Omnium Gatherum. It is the band's second release for the Candlelight Records label. The album features a number of creative aspects not yet attempted by the band....
(CD, Candlelight RecordsCandlelight RecordsCandlelight Records is an independent record label based in Europe founded by former Extreme Noise Terror bassist Lee Barrett, though it has had a division in the United States since January 2001. Candlelight Records specialises in black metal and death metal, having bands such as Emperor,...
, 2008) - New World Shadows (CD, Lifeforce RecordsLifeforce RecordsLifeforce Records is a German record label that specializes in metalcore, death metal, and post-hardcore. Their current roster contains bands such as Burning Skies, This or the Apocalypse, Light Pupil Dilate and Nightrage, and they have helped to launch the careers of a number bands who went on to...
, 2011)
External links
- Official website
- Omnium Gatherum at Myspace