Style: Avant-Garde, Prog Metal, Experimental
Recommended for Fans of: Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Native Construct, Subterranean Masquerade, The Dear Hunter, Pain of Salvation, Igorrr
Review by: Ryan
Country: Israel
Release date: September 1, 2013
Shame on you. Shame on all of you. How this incredible piece of music has flown under the radar for ten years is irreconcilably ridiculous. What should be the gold standard of experimental progressive music has instead found itself as a footnote. Even worse, OMB has never released a follow-up to their debut album, SwineSong. Imagine a world where this band had found its audience and subsequently influenced our modern prog scene. Maybe the world we live in would be a greater place for us all, but instead, we have only fifty minutes of their collective genius and may never see anything on par with it again.
Israeli collective OMB (Of Marble’s Black) unleashed their only album SwineSong in September of 2013, and a decade later, SwineSong is still one of my absolute favorite pieces of music. Over the years I’ve watched their Spotify monthly listeners fluctuate from one monthly listener (me) to currently fifty-one, which may be the highest I’ve ever seen it. People throw around phrases like “ahead of its time” constantly, but I don’t know how else to describe SwineSong. OMB set a precedent with this album that I’ve yet to see surpassed or even matched when it comes to avant-garde prog metal. You may recognize the vocals of Davidavi Dolev from his more recent work with Reign of the Architect, Seventh Station, Gunned Down Horses, and Subterranean Masquerade. Despite being a fan of all of the aforementioned acts, I’ve yet to have the same itch scratched achieved here on SwineSong with its passion for over-the-top experimentation.
Genre-bending tends to be a tricky mistress, but OMB has created an incredibly fluid piece of music here that flows seamlessly through muddy waters. To quote Chris Parnell in Walk Hard, “It’s like some kinda concerto,” and SwineSong is better for it. OMB takes the listener on an unrelenting and surreal journey through a beautiful demented world—structure, be damned! OMB rarely repeats themselves, instead opting to keep moving forward with their abstract art.
Genre barriers are brutally ripped apart limb by limb throughout SwineSong. With a firm avant-garde and progressive metal basis, OMB incorporates elements of musical theater, flamenco, black metal, virtuoso, jazz, bossa nova, traditional percussion, psychedelia, thrash, djent, post-rock, and on and on—they’re all here wrapped In a firm but comfy prog metal blanket. On first listen, it may seem disjointed and random, but given time, the music becomes incredibly clear just how impeccably planned this record actually is. Every moment serves its purpose and flows directly into the next section. Even when the changes sound sudden, every piece Tetris-es its way into an obscure myriad of moving pieces. From horns to violins to sitar, OMB continuously challenges the listener to keep up with them as they travel through a strange auditory universe. If ever an acid-induced fever dream was put to music this is it; SwineSong is simultaneously a terrifying bad trip and the most enlightening beautiful journey ever recorded.
I find it extremely difficult to do justice to SwineSong with mere words. It is beyond a simple music review and can only be absorbed properly as an auditory experience. There has never been anything like this record and the genius herein may never be seen again. It may be humanity’s greatest shame that SwineSong never managed to find its audience and instead was birthed into obscurity and ten years later still orbits that same ghostly veil.
SwineSong is a piece of high art. Its heartbreaking finale “The Cricket’s Broken Violin” ends with the lyric “Through all my life, through all my times, I try to write my next creation.” Yet, this ending vocalism was the nail in the OMB coffin. If only we could pry open that casket and find good old Stan S. Stanman inside offering to sell us a brand new OMB record. I, for one, would solve a litany of obscure and punny puzzles to finally unearth that treasure.
Recommended Tracks: These Walls…, An Ordinary Caveman Sings Ode to Obsession, Someday My Prince Will Come, The Cricket’s Broken Violin
You May Also Like: Vulture Industries, Schizoid Lloyd, Gunned Down Horses
Related Links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook
Label: Ward7 Group
OMB is:
Davidavi Dolev – Vocals
Yuval Kramer – Guitars
Or Rozenfeld – Bass, Contrabass
Yuval Tamir – Drums, Percussion
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