Beaten Into Submission

Profane Omen crashes the party from the depths of Finland. Telling you right off the bat about the musical qualities of the band is a bit challenging as the mix is so varied. One can forget about references to avant-garde or any weird type of music, not varied in that way. The mix is in itself very simple and extremely ass-kicking, putting together elements from death metal, hardcore, thrash, grooving 90s elements, acoustic interludes and straight-up hard rock. A dirty, doomish intro leads off into a grooving slab, Adrenaline, which reminds me of the most glorious moments of Machine Head with more growl on the vocals. Singer Jules displays his mighty range on the opening track alone going from a Corpsesque guttural sound with added harcoreish roughness to strong clean vocals that are refreshingly powerful and not at all whining. Painbox continues the trail of distraction with great melodic riffing and impressive soloing. The performance of the band is sounding formidably tight and punishing to the maximum. FMH and Enemies incorporate more mellow and clean-picked parts with the hard rocking leanings that give nice contrasts to the unrelenting beginning of the album. Gunshot/Mindset takes off with straight up thrashy riffage and a furious tempo that lead into a hell of a catchy chorus. More off-the-wall soloing abounds. The wellness of my neck is forever lost in the mix of overtly grooving drum beats and earth-grinding guitars. A helluva lotta bass can be found in the mix which is a very good thing. A very Pantera-like clean intro starts Pit Of My Thoughts, followed by another metallic beatdown that brings very strong vibes of the aforementioned Texas quartet. The speed injection after the solo is a madness-inducing masterpiece – a pure mosh pit-injection. The entire album is a very strong package and no filler can be found. Some “hits” are also there to bring the high points into the flow. The production is very strong almost throughout the album, especially when everyone is playing together. The balance is perfect. The only minus on the sounds is a bit of a personal issue. When the guitars riff alone, they sound too punkish for my tastes. Not weak, but just too filthy and gritty for a hi-fi wanker like myself. When both axes grind in together, everything is all smiles and moshing again. To summarize my written fellatio, Profane Omen is definitely one of the most promising Finnish metal bands I have had the pleasure of meeting in a while and have what it takes to make things work abroad as well. Check out their website and/or myspace page for slices of this killer.