The return of Broken Hope: a day which seemed most improbable since the death of founder/vocalist Joe Ptacek in 2010. News of his demise was equally shocking and sad given the nature of his death and also how his vocal tones were some of the best and most recognisable of the ’90s death metal scene. From the band’s more straight-forward debut to their technical climax and final album ‘Grotesque Blessings’, each one retained that signature BH sound. While obviously this didn’t just consist of Ptacek’s voice, his eructations were certainly the aromatic ingredient to their festering hobo stew. In 2013 it is down then to the other most important man in the band’s history, Jeremy Wagner (crazed lyricist, song writer and founder), to carry BH forward with the help of alumni Shaun Glass and three new faces.
‘Omen of Disease’ begins with the ‘Alien’-esque industrial intro ‘Septic Premonitions’, recounting the intro tradition of the first two albums. Then comes the true litmus test of BH’s new millenium credentials with ‘Womb of Horrors’. A driving riff which breaks down, that blasting and cascades of morbid, groovy rhythms certainly suggest that the band has not lost its identity. In fact, this is probably the most direct they have been since those opening albums – a decision that certainly has maximum skull-crushing impact. But what of the new vocalist? Well, Damian Leski (Gorgasm’s frontman) doesn’t even attempt to imitate the stylings of Ptacek, much to his credit. Instead what we get is something monotone and devoid of enunciation. While run-of-the-mill by genre standards, this drunken zombie line of delivery works well enough. So that’s the big thing out of the way… What we also get is awesome lead work and a few creepy atmospherics to expand the blunt force trauma of the first four tracks. By the time of Trevor Strnad’s appearance on ‘Rendered into Lard’, things are going great guns in this unadulterated death metal assault.
At the end of ‘Rendered…’ however, comes the first sign of decline on ‘Omen of Disease’. The daft cannibal family film(?) sample is simply stupid. But hey, such silliness isn’t the end of world. No, it’s really when we get to the slower morass of ‘Omen of Disease’ itself that a sense of ‘more of the same, only not as good’ first rears its unwelcome head. Compared to the preceding barrage it seems to lose a fair bit of steam. While things do pick up again with up-tempo ‘The Docking Dead’ and ‘Give Me the Bottom Half’ – something which is vaguely similar to Cannibal Corpse’s ‘Disfigured’ – other tracks like ‘Blood Gullet’ and ‘Carnage Genesis’ towards the end of the album also feel quite unremarkable. It’s left to morsels like ‘Predacious Poltergeist’ and ‘closing’ track ‘Choked Out and Castrated’ to bring back the fire and excitement of the album’s early phase: from the blood-drenched pinch harmonics of the former, to the consuming tides of purulence which carry you away in the latter. Truly closing out the album is a three track mix consisting of 1990’s ‘Incinerated’ rerecorded and modern live versions of another two classics.
While I am not against the material at the end of the album, it seems a curious choice to plaster it on here. A separate EP showcasing the current line-up’s ability to recreate the past might have made more sense; especially as their addition to ‘Omen of Disease’ drives the number of tracks up to fifteen on an album already bloated by two or three fillers. All in all then, this is a slightly frustrating affair: it does demonstrate that BH are as capable as ever of gobbling the guts, but loses points for its occasional stagnation and unnecessarily protracted track listing. I genuinely get no pleasure from criticising one of my preferred acts but the fact is that an album with ten tracks would have been much more effective. Sorry guys…
(6.5/10 Jamie)
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