Odem - Timeless Past Above (2020) Hi-Res

ODEM formed in Russia in 2008, an Extreme Metal band with various genre influences, but at their core, they are Death/Black Metal. Releasing their debut full-length in 2010, and adding an EP in 2013, they now have prepared their latest offering, titled “Timeless Past Above,” which contains six tracks; the last being a cover.

“Ascendance” leads off the album. After a brief quiet entrance, the full attack on your senses follows. The drums are bullet blasts, while the vocals are deep and guttural. The guitars and bass manage to build just a little bit of melody, but this is pretty fierce stuff for sure. Regarding the genre, I would say it’s closer to Death Metal than Black Metal, but it is quite intense.

“Vermes” is a nine-minute track that brings more of the same…deep, dark Death Metal vocals over a bed of constant blast beat drumming and dissonant guitars. The riffs vary but that intensity does not let up. “Desecrate” is a quick three-minute blast of harrowing music that uses a riff pattern than repeats itself at first, driving into your very bones. “Illuminate” is a just under seven-minute song of more vile hatred. They aren’t winning any points for diversity but sure score some for the level of impassioned rage they display on the album.

“Desecendance” is over 12-minutes in length. Opening with clean guitars and some melancholy rhythms, the song descends on you like a dragon reining hell fire from above, scorching everything in its path. The sheer speed of those blast beat drums are enough to literally break the drum kit. Darkness pervades the entire song, and album. The sound drops around the half-way mark, and then picks back up again with a new riff. It gets even more menacing as it heads to closing. “A Glorious Epoch” closes the album; a cover track. I’m unsure what band they cover, but they do it with their own style.

Overall, although as I mentioned, the band isn’t winning any points for diversity, they more than make up for it with intensity, anger and rage. There are six songs or rich hatred, with absolutely blasting drums, and one of the better harsh vocalists I have heard in a while. His gutturals will rattle your soul. The attack is relentless…it’s like 100 war hammers reigning down on your head at the same time. The sheer weight of the instrumentation could crush a black hole, and it moves me to want to break everything around me into pieces in a fit of unstoppable rage. Any fans of extreme Metal will surely find this to their liking.