Release Date: September 13th 2024. Record Label: Cursed Monk Records. Formats: CD/DD
The End Of The Beginning - Track Listing:
1.Survival Of The Shittest 04:47
2.Cyberspace Conscript 03:28
3.A Mentats Oath 06:49
4.Foundations Built On Shifting Sands 11:29
5.Amazon Burning 07:34
6.Convolution 05:12
Line-up:
Matt Doughty - Bass
Daz Rowlands - Guitars
Matt Kilmister - Vocals/Electronics
Review
The End Of The Beginning is the debut album from Blackened Doom/Sludge Metallers Hand Of Omega who play a brutal and nihilistic style of music that’s downright ugly for all the right reasons. The record is brutally fast and has a sublime Speed Metal sound which feels like a Black Metal version of High On Fire and Motorhead in places.
With the band adding moments of Groove and Thrash into their Extreme sound which is quite riff-centric when you cut through all the murky Death/Sludge Metal surroundings which remains harsh but also has a cool sounding technical ability from each of the individual members that make up Hand Of Omega.
I’m quite surprised that lead guitarist Daz Rowlands is playing this fast-paced style of guitars as Daz is mainly known for his work with the cult Doom/Drone/Stoner Metal band Space Metal where they play LOW & SLOW style of music compared to the furious sounds played here. The album is quite vicious with Matt Kilmister’s Death Metal charged vocals, howls and growls but they’re quite easy to understand which is always a good thing for me to fully understand the record.
Hand Of Omega do play some classic riff-centric instrumental sounds amongst the brutal landscape of Extreme Metal that appears here. The songs are superbly constructed with each track having its own distinctive sound and creative journey especially on tracks such as Survival Of The Shittest, A Mentats Oath and Foundations Built On Shifting Sands. This is where you can see Hand Of Omega drift into Prog Metal and Psych Metal which gives the record a whole new level of complexity which impressed me even further.
The heavy pounding bass guitar provided by Matt Doughty is a constant reminder of how primal and ugly Hand Of Omega really are throughout the whole record and is perhaps my favourite aspect of the whole album. Sometimes his bass playing is very understated but it’s always a firm threat with a subtle gloomy presence that allows the other members of the band to do their thing.
The End Of The Beginning is a winning combination of Extreme Metal blended with the surroundings of the Doom/Sludge Metal underground scene which allows this album to be quite a thought provoking ride with first rate grooves to match. This is an outstanding release from the more extreme side of the UK Metal Underground scene that takes a NO HOLDS BARRED approach which leaves you wanting to hear more.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Daz Rowlands for the promo.
The End Of The Beginning is available to buy now on CD/DD via Cursed Monk Records.
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