It feels unbelievable that it has now been over two years since Bad Omens took the alternative scene by storm with their last album The Death Of Peace Of Mind. Now having played massive shows both on their own, and alongside influences Bring Me The Horizon, the band have decided to revisit the album that took their career to the next level with the accompaniment album Concrete Jungle [The OST] (Sumerian Records).
Their new release featuring an array of brand new collaborations, remixes and live tracks, setting out to show the band’s influences that went into their third album, as well as showing the act’s range of styles they can accomplish.
Beginning with a combination of collaborations with the band’s peers, Bad Omens truly shows off the range of genres. Delving into more nu-metal roots with the grime/punk duo Bob Vylan in “Terms & Conditions”, whilst Vylan hits bars and bars, vocalist Noah Sebastian chimes in with the “Artificial Suicide” refrain “Can You Hear Me Through The White Noise.” The whole effect of this back and forth from the acts brings about an almost modern day interpretation of Linkin Park and Jay Z’s collaboration back twenty years ago.
Erra step in for the track “ANYTHING > HUMAN” bringing forth the metalcore, as the vocalists mesh together perfectly and put forward some incredible harsh vocals. It is clear that Bad Omens aren’t leaving their roots completely in search of new genres.
The remix portion of the album brings about a whole new side. Acts from all over the musical spectrum come forward with remixes of the band’s last album. The SO WYLIE patch for “The Death Of Peace Of Mind” lowers the pace of the song, alongside lo-fi beats and minimalist instrumentals, and becomes a whole new chill atmosphere for the song. Meanwhile, for the Thousand Below takes on “Artificial Suicide”, the band take the already heavy song up a notch, creating this relentless banger that will be no doubt creating pits at rock clubs across the country.
The true highlight however comes from the electronic, synthpop group Let’s Eat Grandma who have completely stripped away “Just Pretend” adding their own vocalist alongside Sebastian, which brings about a whole new side of the song. This post-hardcore hit being mutated into electronic pop-rock should not work, but Let’s Eat Grandma makes it work so well, it making you itch for another collaboration between the two artists.
It is in the final section of the album that serves to showcases the band’s talents further with a selection of live tracks taken from the last tour. Specifically, the live edition of “Like A Villain” may even outrank the original recording. The additional vocal melodies from Sebastian go a long way in creating a better sound for the song, and the slight grittiness not captured in the studio recording adds so much more depth to the song.
For so many bands, an accompaniment album for an album released only two years prior would be a death-spell for the band, accusations of not being able to come up with anything new in the years following would definitely arise.
Not for Bad Omens. The band have managed to take the album, and show perfectly to their audience firstly what they intend to do next, and secondly pay tributes to the album that helped them jump up to the platform they have reached today.
Whatever Bad Omens have next to come on their discography is clearly going to be massive, and should bring the band to a whole new level.
Buy the album here:
https://badomensofficial.com/
8 / 10
CHARLIE HILL