OMNIUM GATHERUM: Quality, originality and sincere attitude - Top
quality Finnish steel! OMNIUM GATHERUM took its first steps in a
gloomy and oily cellar in the south-eastern harbour town of Kotka in
Finland during the spring days of 1996. Omnipotent young fellas Markus Vanhala and Olli Lappalainen were extremely influenced by the rapidly ascending wave of scandinavian melodic death metal and the polar alliance between despairing brutal metal and the hopeful melodic and traditional side of music.

So, Omnium Gatherum came to life and the result was a band of many
directions and styles, some of them clearly visible while others were
more unseen - namely working and keeping it all together under the
moniker of melodic life-and-death metal and bastardizing it with
various influences.

During the next years OG rehearsed, composed and released demos and built up a quality cult following in the underground. After the highly
acclaimed "Wastrel" demo the band signed a deal with the growing UK
metal label Rage Of Achilles in 2001 and the OGs were sent right away
to the Sonic Pump studio to record their debut EP "Steal The Light".
The EP was released after a long, long wait in September 2002 and both the critics and the audience seemed to like the stuff.

The debut full-length album "Spirits And August Light" was released in
April 2003 via Rage Of Achilles and gave the band some well deserved
attention within the underground metal community and the press. The
album showed another side to the light: despite the clear and catchy
melodies and the stable rhythm all along the way it had a lifelike
taste of dirtiness to it, with desperate love and uninvited hate
searching for an outlet, like something you didn't want to see happen
but it did nonetheless. The reviews were unbelievably great, for
example being the only Finnish band so far with a debut review of 5/5
in Kerrang! and all the major metal magazines followed in the same
vein. So far, so good... so what!

Next in line to be was the band signing to a metal giant label Nuclear
Blast in the autumn of 2004 to release the second album "Years In
Waste". More technical, more progressive, more sophisticated but at
the same time colder and moving away from the listener was the new
recipe that was completed with themes from the wasted youth,
depression and soul-loss, shamanistic metaphors leading the two-fold
way back in time while the moon shone stranger than ever. It is always
darkest right before the morning. In spring 2006 an era came to an end in OG and the long-time singer Antti Filppu was replaced by Jukka
Pelkonen aka J.

"Stuck Here On Snakes Way" was the debut OG album featuring J on
vocals and it was released in April 2007 after a successful UK tour
and a signing to Candlelight Records. "Snakes Way" is an endless road
dealing with the choices in our existence and the temptation within
the mind of every soul on this third planet of ours, and unfortunately
so many people are stuck... The band didn´t get stuck with the album
and the "Snakes Way" conducted the band to do tours with Dark
Tranquillity, Caliban and Entombed, spiced with a large amount of
Finnish headlining gigs and the #31 position in the Finnish national
album chart!

Omnium Gatherum´s 4th album "The Redshift" was nailed and furled at Sound Supreme and SouthEastSounds Studios during the spring days of 2008 and it was mixed and mastered at Unisound Studio in Sweden by the legendary metal-mastermind Dan Swanö, who commented the album with his nice words: "I hate bands like Omnium Gatherum, they are so good it pisses me off!!! Their fine blend of melody and aggression is so good I actually thought about stealing the record and releasing it as my own :) You won´t find a better album in years."

"The Redshift" really introduces the camp OG in its very strongest
form to date! The album is full of contrasts; melodic but yet brutal,
lots of changing atmospheres, moods from sorrow to joy and from hope to despair, very catchy but still stand outs after lots of listens and
the sands of time. An OG milestone, a classic! ...And it´s all about
riding the red shift!

The Redshift riders can be seen touring in Europe with Nile and Grave in autumn 2008.

Source : www.omniumgatherum.org