Today we are granted key to the hidden gate, a mirror to our own putrid and majestic villainy via this honorable gift of premiering an exclusive full album stream of German black/death metal maelstrom OMEGAVORTEX‘ debut full-length album ‘Black Abomination Spawn‘, an unforgiving salvo of warp-and-stabbing cosmic horror with sight upon paranormal extremity beyond any and all auld limits. Torn from gut feelings and crafted into psychotic nightmares, you will feel comfort in their frenzied mastery long before their curse tortures you into a bug-eyed and carbonized worm. — But hey, Omegavortex say it better than I ever could so, fire up the album down below and check out this interview while you listen. True extremity! Thanks goes to the band, Invictus Productions and their representation for the premiere. Wishlist/pre-order ‘Black Abomination Spawn‘ over on Bandcamp or hit up Invictus‘ site for a copy when it releases this Friday, November 13th!

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From what I’ve gathered Ambevilence’s appearance was sporadic, a formative stage of Omegavortex that gave us the self-titled 10″ EP resultant but with some relation to the recording sessions of Beyond’s ‘Fatal Power of Death’. For the sake of clarity among fans, Omegavortex isn’t intended to be a continuation of Beyond’s work but the next phase beyond Ambevilence, correct?

The confusion surrounding this will stop once everyone hears our new album, as the album includes the complete vision and many more ideas which were lacking in all previous actions. EVERYONE must hear it. But no. This has nothing to do with „Beyond“, it is actually “the other way around”, like you already implied. Even more so: OMEGAVORTEX (est. 2007 as AMBEVILENCE) is the older and initial idea behind everything previously mentioned. It is the purest emenation of DEATH, rooted in limitless extreme music. It just hasn’t been properely released before. But now the time has come to correct all these misconceptions. That’s perhaps why people hear many similarities. In comparsion, Beyond was more or less just a fun project that lacked many things.

What sparked Omegavortex into action in 2017? Not so much in terms of circumstance but, had core musical influences and your greater vision for the band turned any corners beyond the release of the 2015 EP?

Ten Years have passed and AMBEVILENCE needed to be re-branded with a better band name. It wasn’t really a drastic change, since it mostly wasn’t that widely spread at all. The song material is the still mostly the same as before. Well, the whole 2014/2015 EP undertaking wasn’t very representative of our signature sound anyway. It sounds quite odd and a bit boring from nowadays perspective, but it was okay to have some kind of official life-sign, regardless of all the rehearsal and private recordings before. Sometimes things take on weird developments. Change was required to garantuee completeness of the vision, which was starting finalize in 2017.

Is ‘Black Abomination Spawn’ the realization of that original vision years ago or, were the years in between necessarily formative in achieving the high standards of today? It feels like you’ve gotten the modulation of black metal and death metal elements just right on this release.

Exactly. For example the title track Black Abomination Spawn was written sometime in 2008, but the years in-between „work in progress time“ themselves are no longer of importance from nowadays standpoint, the stuff is just there. It doesn’t really matter at all. We create things due to the feeling in our stomachs and creative inspiration, not due to following standards and rules in the music scene. Most of the stuff didn’t even require a fraction of the time that has passed since. However the release of the album marks the beginning of change regarding this aspect. Never again there will be these such huge timespans between writing and releasing. Regardless of genres and the time it took to create after all, the main goal shall always be to create something that is real, unique and as timeless as possible. With the bombardement of releases in our sped-up and never-ending digital era of music creation, the notion of time has become very twisted.

This might be a cliché in some sense but I’m curious where the compositional process begins for Omegavortex. I assume the ruler of the realm is the RIFF yet the craft involved in a song like “Cosmic Horror Maelstrom” feels like a very lucid, complete thought. Do these extensive riff-runs stem from jammed thoughts and intersections or, are they milled over and long-considered pieces?

Speaking about the overall experience OMEGAVORTEX is delivering, in the creation process there are mostly very vivid visions first, like a movie with sounds trying to express certain atmospheres or topics. I won’t go into lyrical detail yet (will elaborate later) but focus on the guitar work you asked for: From this black, or dark red area of the mind then RIFFS emerge first. It takes quite some time finding the right tone combinations especially when we talk about twisted otherwordly guitar licks which do not follow any common musical rules (but as a song, as a whole “movement” then later do, which makes it terrifying and real at the same time). Sometimes it takes hours trying to figure out which part comes next in the “alive ambient movie” I am creating, so that it gets very close to what I have in mind, other parts come out naturally, while at practice. It is like back-engineering a nightmare story once in mind, but using the guitar for it and constantly comparing if the „feeling“ quantitative (length, time) and qualitative (riffs, diversity in relentless soundscapes) of each section is right, but still works as a „song“, simplified. Sometimes things come along very naturally; sometimes more time is required. What helps in the process is constantly re-recording and listening to it on various occasions to see what kind of feeling a song gives you, even if it is still instrumental, under different circumstances.

If the stuff present in a song invokes similar feelings vaguely reminding of disturbing experiences, as if something is coming out of the stereo after you, or the horror of watching children getting killed, barbarous cruelties, terrible stuff nobody wants to see, leaving a hole in the stomach – the experiences that leave you with emotional paradigm shifts – THEN IT IS RIGHT. Writing for this band is like carefully planning an attack on the psyche, and the listener is the victim – OR – the one to accept the nightmare journey.

Moving around in the woods at midnight with just the demo versions of your songs and your lyrics in mind are perfect for checking if everything runs seamless, even moreso, when it delivers the same mood at daytime elsewhere. This shall happen long time before entering studio, and at least half of it before being brought to rehearsal. Alot of bands don’t do this, but use all the stuff they come up with from having a „good time“ at the rehearsal place, not reflecting any of it, but it is harmless sounding shit after all. This is also the reason why there is so much mediocre and forgettable crap around, it’s not just the fault of digital possibilities. I see and hear very other things when I think of DEATH metal: Writing a REAL sounding and challenging horror experience – inducing visual and psychotic nightmares, and they begin with RIFFS – and not the overuse of bandimage or „occult“ self presentation crap that everyone else probably does.

Do you have a favorite or ideal archetypes for black, death, and death thrash riffing in mind when composing?

Archetypes? Nothing is ever ideal. There are of course “types of riffs” but we always try to leave classifications behind us. I always thought that limiting yourself to genres, rules, using certain riffs all over again limits the music and leaves it as a compressed copy of what you’ve been listening to anyway. I would say all the riffing of us is PARANORMAL DEATH METAL. The key is to leave all barriers behind, as the end result of the art itself is most important and thus becomes even more interesting. From the grand vision of the song (it’s rather a „movement“, „experience“ or an „eternal moment“ than a song) you want to express, you have to go back – and piece by piece – put the „way“ which leads up to there together. It’s the combinations that make things alive. Of course the higher pitched tremolo tritone single note parts are among of my favorite – those fast nightmare parts, (you know: the stuff that POSSESSED and NECROVORE did in the 80ies but everyone appears to have forgotten about how to play it properly). Using the same riff like two to four times and going up, repeating the same on the fretboard in very strange unmusical alterations and constant build-ups – which have the bass backing it as a sphere following, or capturing what’s moving towards the listener. It’s hard to figure out how long to play these parts in order to place them perfectly into a song. Besides, I think that many of the classic extreme metal albums we all love became classics because they were created in times when people gave less thought about archetypes or genres.

When I see a cyclops in art the first thought that strikes me is the blinding of Polyphemus in the Odyssey. The illustration here is quite different, a chthonic and tentacled corpse to say the very least, but with some unique symbolism framing it — What were the major inspirations for the artwork’s theme and does this line up with any concept or persistent lyrical theme throughout ‘Black Abomination Spawn’?

Thanks and great that you are asking this, the symbolism behind everything the cover depicts can be seen as a mirror of what is going on in our perception of what reality is. Behind the curtains and the protective layers of ordinary standards, or society, there are things that are completely fucked up and inhuman, yet we have to take a deep look at it in order to comprehend. Just like the depths of the universe, or of what might be the higher dimensions allegedly responsible for a lot of the “paranormal” stuff that is happening, or the source of whatever reason we are here: Forces beyond humanity exist and the complete history of everything is distorted; and bestial evil – unnoticed – is reigning over existence – desecrating what used to be pure. There is way more to all this than what some may have a small glimpse of.

We wanted to have something that would – even in the sense of old-school black/death metal – be disgusting, alien and turning you off, because otherwise it wouldn’t warn you about what you are about to witness on this record. It is a visual repulsion of the ordinary even in terms of extreme metal – polarization.

The „Descendant“ you see on the cover deals with the concept of humanity waiting for the messiah to arrive, the old-fashioned problem/solution scenario, but completely perverted and brought into our times, as in welcoming something that comes from „elsewhere“ beyond human perception, foolishly misinterpreted – to bring everyone to the slaughter. It is both this matter and the fact that the profound ignorance of mankind easily triggers the utmost abominations itself, falling into an endless vortex of death – being just reminded we are small peasants in a huge and probably multi-dimensional layered system that shits upon all the idiotic, worthless paradigms weak people have thought out to create belief systems, blinding themselves from their upcoming demise. The Void Possessor, or whatever you might call it, will not reveal itself as the desired deity to people who are into new age occult esoteric shit or any other belief system good or bad, created to lead the weak sheep into damnation – divided and conquered. Everything human is just a lie, or a small joke in comparison to the size, eternity and possibilities in and beyond the structure of the universe and way beyond. Whatever is behind the dimension layers of the known universe and reality is probably not what people want it to be. We don’t even need to look that far out, as a lot of high strangeness is happening among us, causing to create ancient myths which pave the way for any modern cause to call out for the paranormal and paraphysics; and at some time even to be accepted as science – moving the world towards a wicked downwards spiral of dying ideologies, with distortion of the being and utmost perversion of traditions, led by impossible to identify powers. Reality is upside down and your worst nightmares and fears emerge from the horrific abyss.

You see, given these few hints – the cover makes even much more sense. Still it is somewhat kept simple to maintain more room for personal interpretation which is most important, as the previous lines were just one view of many. There’s even more to interpret but I won’t reveal any of it, as it is up to you how to view and experience this art. Besides, I have to add; If the music itself doesn’t already create a certain picture in the listeners head, all this advanced modern overuse of artwork, huge lyric books, nice vinyl packaging et cetera becomes complete nonsense. Less surely isn’t more, but in this case it generates more food for your mind.

A full-length album is a major achievement for a band of this caliber and yet we (artists and fandom) often push past works quickly for the next thing, a next phase or step beyond. How important is it that ‘Black Abomination Spawn’ leaves a dent or, is considered a profound work? From the late 2000’s until now, it would seem (from a certain perspective) that all was leading up to this high point and I’m curious if Omegavortex has sights on the next record already or if stewing in the waves of this release is important for the time being?

Like mentioned before all these long timelines weren’t really the initial scheme of OMEGAVORTEX. Of course you want the right people, the target audience to appreciate what you have created. But on the other hand, one could care less as you always find room for improvement and will always stay hungry. We never feel entirely finished and satisfied – the cursed blessing of being absolutely into your art. There’s of course a lot more material around which will be worked upon sometime. Whatever comes next, it will be different – in a good way, always striving for the utmost brutal, atmospheric death experience, beyond all limitations – never stagnate. If the follow-up won’t at least make the predecessor sound like a joke, it won’t be released. We don’t release just to follow scene-mechanics. We do things to place terrifying art into this world.

What is the best way fans can support Omegavortex and your collective future goals?

BUY THE LP NOW – Sit down in the dark, crank up the volume until your ears hurt and let the horrors unfold. The Black Abomination Spawn has no other purpose than that. This record is a polarization statement in itself. Those who listen to the first seconds of the opener, will understand immediately.

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Per the press release:

INVICTUS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present OMEGAVORTEX’s highly anticipated debut album, Black Abomination Spawn. The album shall be presented on digipack CD and vinyl LP formats.

An ever-ominous entity hailing from Germany, OMEGAVORTEX formed in 2007 under the moniker Ambevilence and retained that moniker for a decade. Come 2017, OMEGAVORTEX was born, both in name and deed, and Promo 2018 followed. This tape sold more than 400 units despite being on no label – a rarity nowadays – and for good reason: its maw of blackened DEATH functioned more as a literal vortex rather than mere “music” per se. And that ominousness only began to grow…

At long last, OMEGAVORTEX reveal their long-awaited first full-length, appropriately titled Black Abomination Spawn. Relentless, devastating, aggressive, lightning-fast, oppressive, earth-shattering: all these adjectives apply here, with perhaps the most apt phrase being “eviscerating the firmament.” Verily, OMEGAVORTEX are rooted in the ancient alchemy of vintage black/death, drawing equally from the likes of Necrovore, Altars of Madness-era Morbid Angel, Florida’s Incubus, Possessed, Repulsion, Sadistik Exekution, Profanatica, and classic Sarcofago, but sounding like none of them; indeed, their abominations of desolation are entirely their own. As such, their songwriting takes on a tendrilous aspect, enrapturing the listener in unshakeable, irrevocable oblivion – but clearly with a destination in sight. The blackest cosmic abyss…guided by eerily hummable, malevolent melody.

Much like their aforementioned ancient forebears, OMEGAVORTEX nonetheless utilize nuance to an expert degree, structuring Black Abomination Spawn by specific album sides. The first half of the album (track 1-5) brings a belligerence beyond compare, like a brutal MMA fight and live gig simultaneously – gibbering, irascible CHAOTIC FRENZY as portended by their moniker – with almost zero pause between songs and no time for salvation nor rest. However, on the flipside of that moniker is what lies on the second side of the album: a vast, yawning chasm of atmosphere and alienation, no less muscular in its molten, metallic might but displaying dynamics beneath that dense, dissonant exterior. That aforementioned melodic aspect is crucial when faced with so much steroid-ridden brutality, and OMEGAVORTEX duly bring it across the album’s nine-song/46-minute runtime, rendering Black Abomination Spawn both compact and sprawling in equal measure.

Of especial note is the album’s production. In coordination with mastering by Patrick Engel at Temple of Disharmony, the band mixed Black Abomination Spawn as a rough mix, to “fuck up” the recording professionally, in a good way – as OMEGAVORTEX wanted to achieve a very offensive and earbleeding-sounding record, required to be listened to at maximum volume. This would underscore the heaviness of the material, and hopefully generate a headache for the listener. If you are a false, do not entry!

And although this malign work is now seeing the light of day in 2020, OMEGAVORTEX have been writing material for Black Abomination Spawn for 13 years now, sonically/psychically ahead of the times. Now they’ve emerged from that cosmic abyss to scale the throne of the immortals, graced by cover artwork courtesy of Henry Mann – an utmost evil abomination suiting the material. Dive into the abyss and be devoured whole!

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