Ominosity Interview

Ominosity is a sick death/doom band hailing from the depths of Calgary. This interview was conducted with guitarist Andrew in September 2010.

1.    When was Ominosity founded?  Were you or any of the other band members involved in bands now/before this one?

Well Ominosity was founded in 2007 as a whole different band; after that band broke up I decided to use the name for the new material I was writing. For Sanity's sake I'm not gonna mention the bands we've been involved with that haven’t recorded.

Peter - (Vocals): Currently involved in Sigil, formerly in Neuroma and Wargod.

Andy (myself) - (Guitar): Currently involved in Sigil, formerly a member of Kollabra and Wargod.

James (Guitars): No previous or current bands other then Ominosity

David: Currently Involved in Sigil,Hrom,Mortrom and Black Pestilence. Formerly in Wargod

Jan: Involved in Hrom and Gatekrashor. Formerly in Sigil and Neuroma.

2.  How did you come up with the name Ominosity?  What inspired it?

Well I just thought of words that came to mind from the music I was writing and combined ominous and animosity together. I wanted a very Death Metal oriented name and I found that Ominosity worked well for the music I write even to this day.

3.      You recently released a one-track CD-R demo on Dark Witch productions that was limited to 25 copies.  Was this for promotional reasons? Why such a small limitation?

Well that release was primarily created for the sake of handing out at this years’ Maryland Deathfest. James and I went and couldn't pass up the opportunity to promote Ominosity.

4.      Your song “The Frozen Throne” sounds a lot like an old Rippikoulu track to me (although it has cleaner production). What bands have the biggest influence on Ominosity?

Rippikoulu is great! Well as far as our influences go I would say that the most vital ones would be Autopsy, Nihilist/Entombed, diSEMBOWELMENT, Coffins, Incantation, Winter, Mythic, Electric Wizard ,Saint Vitus, Sleep, Morbid Angel, Gorguts, Hooded Menace, Funebrarum(Conjuration of the Sepulchral), and Convulse. But lots of different death, doom and crust bands seem to find their way into influencing us one way or another.

5.  What can we expect from the upcoming EP?  Will the songs be as doomy as "The Frozen Throne" or will they be more uptempo?

Well I like to think that each song has its own individual personality, or at least something that makes it stand out from the rest. Two of the tracks feature a mix of doomy and more uptempo parts with lots of d-beats (mmm d-beats- ed.). The title track is very down tempo and features a lot of more traditional/stoner doom influence. And The Frozen Throne has been re-recorded. We also have an instrumental intro.

6.      Who does most of the songwriting in the band?

I wrote three of [the songs] on my own, and for one I had help from James.

7.   77. What bands have you played with so far? Do you have any upcoming gigs?

We've done shows with Mark of Cain, Sigil, Begrime Exevious, Antediluvian, Gummers, HaggathaJeffxSpicoli (?) and Fornication among others. And on September 24th we will be playing Noctis Metal Fest with Incantation, Rotten Sound, Sodom, Martial Barrage, The Devil’s Blood, Root, Midnight, Metsatoll, Manegarm and some other local acts.

8.  Nowadays there are a lot of death metal bands playing in the old-school style (i.e. Cruciamentum, Disma, Excoriate (Deu), Swallowed, etc.).  What are your opinions on these newer bands?  Personally I think most are pretty cool, but I would enjoy it more if a lot of them didn’t play in the Incantation style.

Well I think quite a few of the new true Death Metal bands sound nothing like Incantation (should have worded that question differently – Alex). Swallowed are a band who have really developed their own sound with their latest release. While there are bands who are repeating the past I think a good majority of them have their own take and influences on things. With music being so easy to acquire I think people are being exposed to a lot more music. While the mainstream metal bands of today use these resources to throw as many incoherent parts together and call themselves "progressive" or simply make a more accessible version of an already explored sound, bands rooted in the underground are using different textures and songwriting styles to pave their own original sound within an already existing genre. Some great bands to check out would be Ilsa and Mammoth Grinder. Both play death metal but have influences stretching out into other categories.

As the modern style of Death Metal has become more and more sterile, pushing away from the filthy and dynamic sound that makes Death Metal what it is, it was inevitable that fans of the style would look back into the past to find bands who met their standards of Death Metal. Tired of the crystal clear digital production, weak songwriting, and shallow musical masturbation that defines most of today’s Death Metal. People began to really look back at the classic bands. Extreme music has always been rooted in a rejection of what has become popular and lacks quality. Thrash Metal was a rejection of Glam, Swedish Death was a rejection of technical Thrash, Second wave Black Metal was a rejection of the growing Death Metal trend in the early 90's(though I think 2nd wave Black Metal was really a less worthy movement then any of the rest ) and so on. History always repeats itself.

9.      What do you tune your guitars to?

We tune to B flat standard.

10.      What are some of your favorite old-school death metal albums and demos?

Anything from Autopsy, Incantation-Onward to Golgotha and Mortal Throne Of Nazarene, Winter-Into Darkness, Entombed-Left Hand Path/Nihilist demos, Abhorrence-Vulgar Necrolatry demo, Order From Chaos-Stillbirth Machine, diSEMBOWELMENT-Transcendence Into The Peripheral, Divine Eve-As The Angels Weep, Sadistic Intent-Impending Doom, Mythic-Mourning In The Winter Solstice, Cremation-Welcome, Gorguts-Considered Dead, Infester-To the Depths...in Degradation, Rottrevore-Iniquitous, Convulse-World Without God, Suffocation-Human Waste, Procreation-Rebirth Into Evil and Morbid Angel-Covenant.

11. Those are all the questions.  Feel free to say whatever you want here.  Oh, and come play in the D.C. area soon!
     Thanks for the interview! I'd just like to give kudos to all the great musicians out there playing true and passionate music who will never get much recognition. Fuck Dubstep and Deathcore! Once we have the opportunity we’ll be sure to come play D.C or anywhere else that will take us!