Omnium Gatherum is a five-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.
After releasing four demos, they were signed to Rage of Achilles, The debut full-length album "Spirits And August Light" was released in 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 long time 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.
Current members
• Jukka Pelkonen – vocals (2006–)
• Markus Vanhala – guitar (1996–)
• Aapo Koivisto – keyboards (2005–)
• Toni Mäki – bass (2009–)
• Jarmo Pikka – drums (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)
Omnium Gatherum
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Description
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.
Announcements
A full-track teaser for the song "New World Shadows" from Finnish melodic death metallers OMNIUM GATHERUM is available. The track is the title cut of the band's fifth album, "New World Shadows", which will be released via Lifeforce Records on the following dates:
Germany, Austria, Switzerland: February 4
Sweden, Finland, Hungary: February 9
Rest Of Europe: February 7
North America: March 1
The CD was recorded at Astia Studio 2 in Lappeenranta and OmG Studio in Karhula, Finland with Teemu Aalto, and was mixed and mastered at Unisound Studio in Örebro, Sweden by Dan Swanö (EDGE OF SANITY, HAIL OF BULLETS, NOVEMBERS DOOM). Swanö also contributed clean vocals to two songs while Niilo Sevänen from INSOMNIUM added "a few guest growls."
Commented OMNIUM GATHERUM vocalist Jukka Pelkonen: "This is the album I've been wanting to do for years." Guitarist Markus Vanhala added, "Here it is, the OMNIUM GATHERUM musical evolution and career of 15 years in metal and this album surely is finally the musical diamond what we were starting to chase once we started this band. Finally every piece of the puzzle are here and the notes on the right places! This is northern death metal without limitations, really melodic and intelligent but still aggressive while quoting lines from prog to even AOR and no less than having also my teenage idol sir Dan Swanö himself singing some stuff here. Like we say it — this is adult-oriented death metal in its most epic, melodic and purest form!"
"New World Shadows" track listing:
01. Everfields (9:17)
02. Ego (4:07)
03. New World Shadows (6:00)
04. Soul Journeys (4:54)
05. Nova Flame (4:10)
06. An Infinite Mind (5:43)
07. Watcher Of The Skies (4:17)
08. The Distance (3:59)
09. Deep Cold (9:29)
OMNIUM GATHERUM recently parted ways with guitarist Harri Pikka after "13 years of solid service." He has since been replaced by session axeman Joonas Koto (MALPRACTICE, ex-TO/DIE/FOR, ex-HATEFRAME).
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