While we’re in the doomy, sludgy type of mood that Toreignimmortal initiated with his post on British Doom Stoners Conan, we might as well throw up Ventilation Shaft’s recommendation as well. He recommends Omega Massif, a German band from Würzburg, Bavaria that has been active since 2005. As Ventilation Shaft describes it: ”very dark in atmosphere, very heavy, but also melodic”. Accurate!

After the band’s 2007 debut Geisterstadt, four years passed until the release of Karpatia, which came out last September. All their songs carry German titles, but the vocals are not. Because there are no vocals. Omega Massif plays purely instrumental.

I’ve seen fit to take you through some of the band’s past releases – there have been two splits as well – as there is some genuinely good stuff there. Just free up some time for this, as this, despite that the songs aren’t even that ridiculously long, is not suitable for quick and easy listening. Now follow us past the jump!

I imagine Omega Massif’s music would be incredibly suitable for listening while your studying or doing difficult work. Apart from that there are no vocals and so no distractions from whatever it is you’re reading, this goes further. Omega Massif plays in a tempo and with a flow that is like classical music and perfect to reinforce your concentration. The music stops all awareness of time and space and so it’s just you and that thick fuckin’ calculus book to sort out who’s stronger.

But listening to Omega Massif while studying calculus would really not do the music much justice. Lying on a bed, eyes closed or in a dark room with nothing but Omega Massif to focus on would. I’ve picked Exodus, directly following one of Ventilation Shaft’s song suggestions, as a first example. I have no idea if the following clip is an official video or anything, but the imagery that comes along with the song does definitely fit the audio. There’s this feeling of immeasurable totality and timelessness, and what better way to depict this than using footage of some of the brutal physics from space?

We take a big fuckin’ step into 2009 now, when the band co-released a split. They did that with a band called Mount Logan, also from Germany, that are operating in a completely different department: some Hardcore, weird-as-fuck Punk-type of stuff. With songs like Ass-cancer and How I Fought It, a sound that’s superficially like a bunch of toddlers in a rehearsal room if it weren’t for the absolute tightness of what’s played, and an average song duration of a minute and a half, Mount Logan – if you’re interested, seek out their stuff here – really isn’t the type of stuff you would have picked for Omega Massif to do a split with.

Featured below is Brachland, the opening song of the release and one of only two Omega Massif contributions on the split, whereas Mount Logan submitted eight (yet still have less air time). It takes you through a world of pain and suffering, but with a deep, dark beauty, in just under twelve minutes. So grab some popcorn or something.

We skip their second split (which was with Tephra and only contains one song each), released in 2010, and continue with the band’s latest accomplishment: a full-length record called Karpatia, released only a few months ago.

I’ve picked a song called Steinernes Meer, whose very first, deeply colored tones immediately induced appeal. It seems the band has been making great steps in recording and especially in getting additional layering and warmth in there. Like with pretty much all Doom / Stoner material, this song could’ve been a hell of a lot more efficient if they could just double the tempo (proof on a very extreme case here, but it wouldn’t have been half as powerful! Give it your eleven odd minute long love!

That was just a brief introduction into this band. Your next step should be to pay the band a visit on Facebook to give them some extra ‘Like’ and check out more of their stuff from there. But take it slow!

Tags: doom, German, sludge

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