The RMR upper echelons maintain a List ov Laggards. Record promos that were accepted with grace but – somehow – escaped through the cracks in the woodwork later. And sometimes one of those albums falls victim to a random pick, wrestled kicking and screaming from its comfortable sumpy resting place into the harsh merciless spotlight of the review desk.
And today, The Moor‘s Ombra fell prey to the burly blind guardians of our dark and mysterious review pipe. But – is this going to be that cathartic experience embedded in a riot of Progressive Death Metal or will this be a walk in murky shadows? Don your headlamp and march forth. But have a care, there are bends in that road before you.
I am puzzled. The Moor announced itself as a – and I quote – “…progressive metal band with ever-evolving sound facets…” with a heavy focus on “…death metal and thrash metal.” And there’s truth in that. Ombra indeed contains elements of Death and Melodeath that excited us to a point. But the progressive part eluded the crew somewhat over here. In other words, you’ll get metal, darkly tainted like early Tethra, with some harsh passages stitched onto it. And let me be clear, amid an abundance of heavy chugging, a bounty of synths and keys, the Death Metal passages won’t really soar. In other words, the harsher parts won’t flow freely from a solid structure as they damn well should. Instead, this feels like someone grafted the ‘extreme’ parts onto a piece of Metal o’ The Light.
Intro – Il tema dell’Ombra unravels like a film score vacillating between a new slice of the ubiquitous Starship Enterprise series and any watery Disney movie out there. So, after that start, the folks at the review desk expected some Kamelot-esque Power Metal to surge forth. Instead, we got metal that allows its electronica to navigate dangerously close to where disasters like Amaranthe might have been before. With guitars that feel constrained and locked in, this album won’t soar to new heights and please the cold hearts of diabolical metalheads like the ones over at the RMR tower.
Ombra is very much an album of the first three strikes.1 You get the overwrought aforementioned Disney show at first. It ain’t bad, but it is what it is. But then The Overlord Disease lets loose. And that’s one wild track, filled to the brim with this trademark tag-team approach of growls and clears, harsh metal galore, juicy riffs, and one beastly solo full of excellent shreds. Illuminant first displays some pretty sturdy Nordic vibes, but then kinda loses itself in the annals of metal lore. It’s not a bad song with lusty heavy chugs, melodic interludes, frequent changes of tempi, and corny vocals.
As of Ombra – the title track – the songs kinda quake in the wake of that first slice of pretty solid songs. The RMR crew listened to this gaggle of followers a felt gazillion times but the excitement just vanished in an amalgamation of much of the same muchness. In addition, I reckon the last two tracks should have gone the way of the terrible oubliette. Vitreus and Thirst almost bored us to tears with their repetitive airs and lack of energy. And yet, a couple of songs gave us pause nonetheless. This River Spoke – for instance – valiantly tries to inject some Melodic Death Metal into the fray. And The Passage knew to distract us with a solo better than the one on The Overlord Disease.
But overall, Ombra never quite let us shake that feeling of déjà-vu and almost planless noodling about the soundscape. A piece that often throws everything into the fray at once with the vocals on top like some sort of garnish. That said, this ain’t a bad record. The ingredients for greatness truly are there and some of the sturdier material does have promise. But somehow the pieces of the puzzle won’t fit very well. In the end, all we got is a jumble of tracks. One that needs the proverbial chisel to carve out a pristine production worthy of their talent.
As it stands now, Ombra is neither here nor there. A record that’s middle of the road of Modern Metal with benefits, refusing to hit the dirt for some real fun. Metal o’ The Light with a few rough edges that’ll appeal to the mainstream crowd. As to this crew, we’d rather see some sharp edges and pointed corners next time. Perhaps we will be heard? Pump up the volume, folks.
Record Rating: 5/10 | Label: Inertial Music | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 15 March 2024
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