Dark Elite - Void Omnipotent

DARK ELITE - Void Omnipotent (SCHATTENKULT Produktionen CD 2018)

First of all, I have to say that the "Void Omnipotent" contains the actual album as well as Dark Elite's previous EP titled "Enter the Void", which originally was released on cassette back in 2012. Of course, we all like to get some bonus material on the albums, but in this case I would actually prefer if both recordings were released separately. It would make more sense to me. The CD length would not be extended to almost one hour of music, instead we would get a nice 35 and 20 minutes long releases, which would be much more comfortable to listen to. It is only my opinion of course, but I have right to say what I think... Besides, take it as something minor, because it doesn't take from Dark Elite anything, when speaking of their potential and high quality of their music. 

"Void Omnipotent" itself is quite difficult to categorize, but I think that unlike most of Schattenkult Produktionen releases, this one is much more death metal oriented. But death metal from Dark Elite is also not so common, as it's not that utterly brutal and savage death metal riffage. "Void Omnipotent" is kind of mid to fast paced stuff, not so easy to compare to anything. For example there may be similarities to Septic Flesh, but without that whole orchestral stuff they have. Dark Elite explores few different types of extreme metal, from doom, death and black metal, so there are many more faces to it. The growls, for example, are kind of similar to Dan Swano and Spiros Antoniou. There's great heaviness to Dark Elite riffage, sometimes almost doomy feeling and kind of monumental, epic sound, which embraces the whole music. In each song you'll find intriguing harmonies, which nicely balance the massive sound of riffs... But quite often Dark Elite blasts to achieve even more crushing feel and more so, I cannot forget that there's sometimes even black metal aura around these songs, which gives even more attractive result. Take "Soil - Shit - Blood" as an example, which in its opening part reminds me even acts such as Aeternus. It's just very good, fast song, but with plenty of diversity to offer. "Flesh - Earth - Soil" is one of the highlights for me, as the doomy character of this song is just insanely capturing and almost hypnotizing. This is one of these songs, which remind me the non-orchestral version of Septic Flesh, but equally interesting and great to listen to. And that melodic theme at the end of this track - fantastic! Meanwhile clean vocals in "Devotion - Master - Chaos" make me feel that it's a shame they don't appear in any other song too, because they sound simply great. By the way, they did a video for this song, so you can watch it on YouTube. 

Generally, if you take any song from "Void Omnipotent", then you can notice that each one of them can stand out on its own, so equally great is the whole material. Every song has something great to offer, there are always many fantastic ideas, riffs, arrangements, which I personally was very impressed with. And they're all equally long (over 4 minutes, never less, never more). More so, the production is simply spot on. 

Since we get also "Enter the Void" EP as a bonus, I need to write few words about it also. Well, the aura around these four songs is even more black metallish, I think, the music is slightly rougher, it's not so massive heavy, instead it feels darker and almost malicious sounding. On this EP I like "Sic Itur Ad Astra" the most, it's just very, very good song, which really stands out.  

It's not the first time I was surprised with Schattenkult release, but I have to say that Dark Elite stands out in this label's catalogue and I didn't expect to hear such music released by this label (which usually deals with traditional black metal stuff). But that was a very pleasant surprise and definitely a great album, worthy to check, so I recommend you all to grab a copy. As always, it's limited to 500 copies, so you better do not miss it. 

Standout tracks: "Flesh - Earth - Soil", "Devotion - Master - Chaos", "Soil - Shit - Blood", "Pimeys - Valo – Pimeys" 

Verdict: 80/100