Thy Dark Conquest

Let's put the cart before the horse: one sixth of the album is absolutely rubbish, because the last track offers nothing but a constantly howling wind. Six minutes without the lowest form of music are more than impertinent. It's a sonic cup of piss. Have a drink and enjoy, but do not invite me to your celebration. With that said, let's get objective. The Italian-Australian cooperation has penned a debut that demonstrates the power of the underground while mixing elements of black metal and thrash with a minimum dose of punk. Broad sections of the album reflect the relentlessness of anti-commercial music. Buio Omega do not give a damn about useless things such as "career", "sales figures" or "mass compatibility". Their intention is to constitute a forum for brutality and ugliness. No doubt, they implement their plan successfully. Yet - and this important detail must not be forgotten - the dudes also have a knack for blistering melodies and varied composition formulas. Consequently, this debut cannot be deemed as immature or amateurish.

The five songs between the short intro and the dimwitted outro display a highly motivated band that does not concentrate on atmosphere or high velocity. The guys keep an eye on both elements. "Black Harvester of Hate", maybe the centrepiece of the album, illustrates the great potential of Buio Omega. Its eight and a half minutes are almost overloaded with spooky parts (inter alia due to effective keyboards at the beginning and lamenting background vocals that show up after three minutes), outbursts of velocity, perilous guitar lines and effectually placed breaks and tempo changes. All this is crowned by the throaty, undisputedly psychopathic lead vocals. The song - as well as the other tracks - does not profit from a flawless production. The quality of the mix does not surpass an average level. A higher degree of pressure, transparency and massiveness would have been desirable. This is, however, no big deal. Buio Omega perform their songs with energy and conviction, they are competent song writers and know the difference between complex structures and "progressive" formulas that appear as the mortal remains of fatally injured songs. What else can you demand?

Buio Omega's name refers to an Italian horror movie and the music mirrors the sickness of this cinematic masterpiece. (I am sure that it is a masterpiece, because it has been censored in Germany. My grouchy compatriots forbid everything that promises fun.) Film synopsis: a taxidermist has lost his wife as a result of a voodoo ritual. Naturally, he exhumes her body and puts the corpse in his bed. Don't be surprised, that's a completely logical behaviour! Afterwards he murders... well, guess you can imagine the rest of this bullshit. However, the screams of lead vocalist Gorgoroth express torture, pain and insanity and the entire album could work as a soundtrack for the aforementioned type of movies. It is not overly atmospheric, but songs like the very strong "A Black Veil over the Devastated Lands" give rise to dark scenarios before your inner eye and the album's subtitle ("The War of Mankind") has its justification. Overall, I recommend this full-length to every fan of black thrash metal. Although the formation does not exist anymore, "Thy Dark Conquest" is worth discovering.

Put out in back in 2000, on Battlegod Productions, the label owned by Gorgoroth (from Baltak / Buio Omega), this is a fairly decent display of raw, unholy, Aussie Black Metal, but overly bland. Mostly a rehash, musically, of older slightly thrashy, Satanic Black Metal bands that utilize rather bare melodics in constantly differing beats and rhythms, thus creating a tight little package of aggressive texture and accessible dynamics in a repetitious frame. Now, as much as I do enjoy the direction sought, and method performed, there are some stale moments, of uninspired, generic ideas (especially by 2000), and things you've probably heard before .

A good selection of vocals are presented, and most well sung. Expect a few of the cleaner parts to stray from in tune slightly when they attempt to do the higher parts. The BM vocals are pretty good, and pretty aggressive, and evil sounding. Produced pretty well, and definitely mixed nicely.

The guitars have a pretty good presence. With the production, I think some aspects of the guitars sound are enhanced nicely, but other areas: like with the certain clean note sections, and some track layering parts, come off a bit thin, less powerful, and just rather decent, but nothing that really sticks. The album probably would have been a bit better if the guitarists had chosen to add more melodic elements, as the cleaner production certainly hurts the less melodic areas.

The drums sound mostly clear, but ring a bit flat and tinny during their long spats of high intensity blasting. Overall, they come off as decent in the mix, and do keep a clear hard rhythm, but definitely aren't a whole lot removed from generic, melodic unholy, Black Metal drum patterns.

Bass, well,... doesn't stand out.

The cover art (credits of Rev. Kris Hades) fits the album well, and really is pretty cool. Interior artwork isn't much, and the fact that it has an advertisement as the last page kinda puts me off a bit, but lyrics, and photos are a plus.

All said, this album has its highlights, but clearly lacks in original concept, or presentation thus leaving this as more a collectible than a real necessary. Definitely download first.