Omnium Gatherum

This article is about the melodic death metal band. For the play by Theresa Rebeck, see Omnium Gatherum (play).
Omnium Gatherum

Omnium Gatherum at Rockharz Open Air 2016 in Germany
Background information
Origin Karhula, Finland
Genres Melodic death metal
Years active 1996–present
Labels Lifeforce Records, Century Media Records
Associated acts Insomnium
Website omniumgatherum.org
Members Aapo Koivisto
Erkki Silvennoinen
Jukka Pelkonen
Jarmo Pikka
Markus Vanhala
Joonas "Jope" Koto

Omnium Gatherum is a six-piece melodic death metal band from Finland, founded in the autumn of 1996. Although the band mainly follows the path of the melodic death metal genre, much of their work shows strong influences from progressive death metal, especially their later albums.

Guitarist Joonas Koto and bassist Erkki Silvennoinen at Rockharz 2016
Singer Jukka Pelkonen and Guitarist Markus Vanhala at Rockharz 2016
Keyboardist Aapo Koivisto at Rockharz 2016
Drummer Tuomo Latvala at Rockharz 2016

Biography

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 attention within the underground metal community and the press.[1]

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.[1]

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.[1]

"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 No. 31 position in the Finnish national album chart![1]

Omnium Gatherum's fourth 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." [1] 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 No. 24.[2][3][4]

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.[1][5]

In August 2010, Omnium Gatherum announced that they have inked a deal with Lifeforce Records for their next release, and also that their longtime 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.[1][6][7]

"New World Shadows", the fifth full-length studio album of Omnium Gatherum was released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on February 4. 2011, Finland, Sweden and Hungary on February 9., the rest of Europe on February 7. and North America on March 1. "New World Shadows" topped the Finnish album charts and was on the 5th position on official national album chart and was on the 1st position in Finnish Rumba indie chart![1] The album is the band's first to be released via Lifeforce Records. It was recorded during the period August 2010 - October 2010. After the album release, Omnium Gatherum toured Europe with Rotting Christ in April/May 2011.[1]

New World Shadows is critically acclaimed, and is considered to be one of the best melodic death metal albums in Finnish metal.[8] It is renowned for the mixture of harmonizing melodies along with typical death/heavy metal guitars and drumming. The vocal styles vary from deep death growls to clean vocals. The sound of the album is epic and progressive. Omnium Gatherum's music is influenced by Gothenburg-style bands such as At The Gates, In Flames, Dissection, Dark Tranquillity, but also Iron Maiden, Death, Anathema and Megadeth among others.[9]

On June 17 it was announced that Joonas "Jope" Koto has joined Omnium Gatherum as their new full-time second guitarist, replacing Harri Pikka, who left the band in 2010.[10]

On July 10, 2015, the band announced that they had almost finished the recordings for a new album.[11]

Members

Current members

Former members

Vocals

  • Olli Lappalainen – 1996–2000
  • Antti Filppu – 2000–2006

Guitar

  • Olli Lappalainen – 1996-1997
  • Harri Pikka – 1997–2010

Bass

  • Olli Mikkonen – 1996–1997
  • Jari Kuusisto – 1997–1998
  • Janne Markkanen – 1998–2007
  • Eerik Purdon – 2007-2008
  • Toni "Tsygä" Mäki – 2009–2012

Keyboards

  • Mikko Nykänen – 1996–1999
  • Tomi Pekkola – 1999–2001
  • Mikko Pennanen – 2001–2003
  • Jukka Perälä – 2003–2005

Drums

  • Ville Salonen - 1996–1999
  • Jarmo Pikka - 1999-2016

Timeline

Discography

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Official Website". Omnium Gatherum. Retrieved 2013-11-30.
  2. ↑ "BurnYourEars Webzine | Metal & Rock Reviews, News, Interviews und Berichte". Burnyourears.de. Retrieved 2015-08-16.
  3. ↑ Etan Rosenbloom (2008-11-05). "Album Review: Omnium Gatherum - The Red Shift | Prefix". Prefixmag.com. Retrieved 2015-08-16.
  4. ↑ "dfltweb1.onamae.com – このドメインはお名前.comで取得されています。". Archaic-magazine.com. Retrieved 2015-08-16.
  5. ↑ "Myspace". Blogs.myspace.com. Retrieved 2013-11-30.
  6. ↑ "Myspace". Blogs.myspace.com. Retrieved 2013-11-30.
  7. ↑ "Myspace". Blogs.myspace.com. Retrieved 2013-11-30.
  8. ↑ "Omnium Gatherum". Alistairmartinmuisc.blogpsot.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-08-16.
  9. ↑ Metalship (2013-02-12). "Interview of Omnium Gatherum with Markus (guitar) and Jukka (vocals)". Metalship. Retrieved 2013-02-12.
  10. ↑ "Omnium Gatherum Announces New Guitarist - Blabbermouth.net". Roadrunnerrecords.com. 2011-06-17. Retrieved 2013-11-30.
  11. ↑ "Apple Music - Omnium Gatherum". Apple Music. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
  12. ↑ "Omnium Gatherum news". OmniumGatherum.com. July 6, 2009. Retrieved July 7, 2009.
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