Omision - In the Shadow of the Cross

Omision
In the Shadow of the Cross
2011 Chaos Records
"The Sound of Perserverance." If Chuck Schuldiner hadn't used that title for the final Death album, then it would have been perfect for Omision's debut album. Vocalist Heriberto Pérez is the poster-child for perserverance. Omision was formed way back in 1992, saw a lot of lineup changes, got back together many years later, saw more lineup changes, and some demo releases. All of which has now culminated in this album, "In the Shadow of the Cross." That's a lot of hard work, and there's not many who would have stuck with it for all this time. Most of the tracks here are brand new, with only "Your God" and "Beyond the Burning Gates" from the "Utopia of Chaos" demo, and "Seeking the Holy Throne" from the "Pileup in the Morgue" demo being the only songs heard previously. Heriberto wrote everything on this album, with the rest of the band helping with some of the arrangements and little else. He sure seems to know what he's doing too, as he did in fact write songs and not "collections of riffs." Oddly enough, even though I know for a fact that he worships at the altar of Testament, very little if any of their influence can be heard on this album. Vocally, Heriberto is somewhere between Kam Lee and Glen Benton's deeper vocals. None of that high screaming crapola, and not your typical death metal vocals that you hear these days. He's very understandable like most of the old guard were. Bands that have influenced the music here? Well, "Assault in the Vatican" starts off with a riff you'd swear that Terrorizer came up with, and "Your God" is very Monstrosity influenced. I hear a lot of their first album in that track, especially the classic "Ceremonial Void." Guitars here are handled by Roberto Lizárraga, also of Infinitum Obscure. Very different style for him here, but he still put his heart and soul into each note played, especially in the solos. Joel Márquez, formerly of Sadistic Intent and Infinitum Obscure assaults the drums with a lot of passion, moreso than any of these technical drummer types. Hopefully this is not the last we hear of Mexico's Omision, not to be confused with Spain's Omission.