Apotheosis Omega - Vama Marga

APOTHEOSIS OMEGA - Vama Marga (GODEATER Records CD 2016)

Here’s another release from Godeater, and another black metal band in this label. It kind of happened that all black metal stuff that Godeater has released so far was German, with killer releases from Black Horizonz, Notorius and Nordafrost… and it ain’t different with Apotheosis Omega, who are from Aachen. “Vama Marga” is their debut release, they have no demos or other stuff recorded, but this album sounds already mature enough to know that sometimes demos can just be a waste of time for some bands.

I have to be honest, I have some problems with clear qualification of Apotheosis Omega music. For example I can hear some Greek black metal influences in it, but there’s more to it than just that (for example, I can additionally bring “Reinkaos” similarities) and as a result, the music of Apotheosis Omega sounds way more original than most of the other black metal releases these days, and they do that without infecting the style with other genres like post blablabla or whatever. At the same time they’re not like all those orthodox black metal acts there, even if Apotheosis Omega surely used a lot of traditional means, but managed to come up with something intriguing without eating genres’ own tail. And there are many really fantastic riffs or arrangements and ideas here, I like how Apotheosis Omega combines harsh and dark black metal with melodic and epic, slow paced stuff. It works well enough to keep me interested, even if I’m far praising the band for creating the best black metal of the year. And that’s not only because the quality bar has been risen incredibly high lately, but also because I feel like I miss something on “Vama Marga”. The music becomes a little bit dull after several listens, maybe because it gets a bit too melodic after a while and I start to miss the obscure and really cold, aggressive black metal sound. It wouldn’t harm also if the music was a bit faster. Finally, I’m afraid that I’m also a bit annoyed with the vocals’ manner of Dorn.

So, when reading this you may think that I’m not really so much into “Vama Marga”. Well, that would not be truth. I won’t be praising Apotheosis Omega, but I’m also far from calling it crap. It’s just one of those solid and interesting bands that you enjoy from time to time, even if you know that their music didn’t break your neck and it’s not one of those jaw dropping releases that you wanna hear every fuckin day.

Standout track: “Belial”

Final rate: 70/100