Malamorte – Omen

Malamorte

Omen

by Ricardo Casagrande at 30 September 2022, 2:10 PM

MALAMORTE comes from the mind of Italian musician Lord Vampyr who has been around the Italian music scene since the early 90’s. The music is a mix of Black and Heavy metal with vocals that deal with a variety of topics ranging from cults, satanism, vampirism. In this case, the vocals are based on the movie Omen. The project came together in 2009 and includes fellow Italian musician Stefano Nuccetelli. They first released an EP in 2014 called The Fall of Babylon, and after went on to release five full length albums from 2016 to 2021. Their last two albums titled Mass Cult Suicide and God Needs Evil have taken on many highly touted reviews and have helped create a large following over the years. Now the newest album Omen is out now on Moribund Records.

The album starts off with the instrumental track “June 6, 6:00am” which is the date the movie was re-released in 2006 for a little number of the beast effect, as the movie was originally released in 1976. The song has a medium tempo and is melancholy with heavy melody from the guitars while the drums maintain a consistent double bass beat. The song debuts the release with a ritualistic cult vibe that matches the fanbase to the movie, which itself garnished a following after its release. The vocals pretty much project the storyline of the movie, so in case you haven’t seen it, there are spoilers involved. A punchy guitar riff kicks off the song paired with pounding drums as the prince of darkness is born and adopted. The music fades off into some great melodic guitars and solo work as the bass trembles in the back. A bridge with some technical guitar playing brings the song back into the chorus as the song plays out. The vocals are in the stylings of a GHOST but with less of the higher notes, not overwhelming the music, but draws its power from it. “I Die For You” is a good example of this, the song is well written and features heavy almost Power metal crossed with an old school metal stylings and well used palm mutes. A catchy well rounded metal track and is set to a pretty classic scene in the movie itself as the track matches the mental manipulation.

The guitar work on the album is well done to match the unsettling nature of the film but really does a great job of creativeness to the degree that makes it a soundtrack to Halloween in general. The track “Repulsion For The Sacred” backs my theory of this which features strong drums that keep a relentless flow to the music but are not destructive to the music but yet compliments it very well. A pagan style of music is used for the track “The Son Of The Devil” and also features more melody and creative soloing. “Megiddo” is a more old school black metal track that has a heavy tempo driven by double bass as it debates the days of the great war bringing Armageddon to earth. The final track before the outro is “Kill Damien” and is the thrasher of the album. Powerful guitar riffs and battering drums keep a strong momentum to the song that features a cult-like chant of “Kill Damien”. The track and along with the album shows the hold that these guys have on horror metal, and a vast vault of creativity.

This is horror metal at a high level but also the catchy and tasty guitar licks follow in those tracks. The album sounds good from start to finish as L.V. really sets a horror tone with the lyrics and music. Maybe a later release more towards Halloween could do it justice but conforms to an unsettling nature just fine. There seems to be a wide range of influence to the music from BLACK SABBATH to GHOST to KING DIAMOND, but the music is transformed into its own catchy diabolical beast. Anyone who is a fan prior to this release will not be disappointed with what they hear as the band comes once again knocking on the door of what has made them known.

Songwriting:8
Musicianship:8
Memorability:7
Production:8