Feanor Omega
Anima

Austrian atmospheric black metal, that is how they describe the debut album of Austrian act Feanor Omega. The guy behind it all has the same name as the project itself and he is accompanied by some experienced black metallers. Anima is the name of this album that has nine tracks and plays for 52 minutes, the cover art is serene and interesting – it looks kind of atmospheric in its style.

It is atmospheric, slow, quite melodic and a little dark. There is variation but to me it feels a little slow, a little long in parts and becomes somewhat sleepy at times. The vocals are varied with female vocals, male vocals and growls although on most parts it is instrumental. The growls are not very good. The production is great, I really like the soundscape and the landscape it paints but if one uses paintings as a metaphor it lacks a bit of content in those landscapes and some might find the album a tad on the long side. It feels mainly targeted at those that are big fans of the genre and sees nuances in slight monotony and slow melodies.

It is well made and to me it sounds like strong background music but it never really grabs me and catches my attention. I would have liked a little more dynamics and tempo. It is not bad but neither is it really good so it ends up being one of those albums that should have been better but got caught in stereotypes and ended up somewhat insignificant in the end. However, don’t take my word for it if you are a fan of this particular genre because I suspect that those who are fans of said genre will view it differently to my view and find it a lot more exciting than I and many other listeners fill find it. I think that they do what they do pretty well but a wider audience will probably not take this to heard, I for example struggle to keep my attention up for the duration of the album and when I listen to it I conclude that it takes a certain type of music fan to get the best out of this album and I am not that fan and as I am more like the average than said fan I think that this rating is the correct one. So if you are a fan of said genre I think you can find this album very agreeable, if you are not I doubt you will get much out of it.

The album is best in the beginning but my interest dies the further along I get, which is a shame. I also think that the growly bits are quite hopeless and that sinks the album even more and in the end it feels like an album that should have been better, or more accessible but maybe they went down their safe route and ended up with an album that is most likely very agreeable to the fans but much less so to the rest of us.

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