Om - God Is Good

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5...according to our Brett on Wed 16 Sep, 2009.

I think there's been a fair bit of fretting over Om since Chris Hakius left early last year which isn't really surprising considering he was half the band. Emil Amos from Grails has since stepped in and, despite initial reservations over a contrast of styles, seems to have fit right in if the couple of times I caught them live last year and this new LP (God Is Good) are anything to go by. His more elaborate fills do pop up from time to time though, a subtle evolution which is mirrored elsewhere. I think they'd probably taken their minimal metal mantras about as far as they could really go with Conference of the Birds and Pilgrimage so it's perhaps no surprise that this seems to me to be an LP of consolidation, pointing the way to future directions with its slightly more opened up instrumentation (piano, tambura and flute can all be heard at various points), a greater emphasis on little post-production touches and the fact that the shorter tracks are the stronger ones for a change. A quality LP but hopefully a taster for more to come.

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‘God Is Good’ is the fourth album from the indomitable OM since their
formation in 2001. It is their first new record in two years.

OM albums are rituals, personal convictions
transcripted into verse. Playing the music is
visceral, emotional, a catharsis of soul and spirit.

As ever, dynamic relationships and the slow
building of mood are attenuations that shape the
structures of ‘God Is Good’. With careful
microscopic increase, the energy grows through
the four songs, leading towards moments that
one could interpret as… Revelation? Oblivion?
Awakening?

OM are part of a community of musicians and
thinkers whose influence only grows: Current
93, Six Organs Of Admittance, Lichens, Sir
Richard Bishop, Alpha & Omega and Grails.

Tracklisting:

Thebes * Meditation Is The Practice Of Death *
Cremation Ghat I * Cremation Ghat II