Overmars
Born Again
Crucial Blast 2009
Born Again, the
Crucial Blast rerelease of the second full-length album from France's Overmars,
is an industrialized sludge metal experience in bleak darkness. Its single
track spans 39 minutes and is a journey that strips the listener of any feeling
of safety and punishes them with heavy, relentless pounding and a crushing
nihilism for a cold, cruel, metallic world. An immediate Streetcleaner era
Godflesh reference will be made by the listener and a metallic hammering beat
and pulsating thick bass guitar paint a burnt out landscape of robotic
factories, as smoke obscures all light. Screamed females vocals, courtesy
of Marion and gravelly male vocals slowly dance across the ashen textures of
Born Again while throbbing beats pummel your mind into submission. From
the darkness rises a sorrowful siren bringing to mind comparisons somewhere
between Miranda Sex Garden and Bjork. All the while a subtle pulsing bass
guitar provides something for the listener to cling to as the female vocalist
plummets into oblivion, rising fear and frustration echoed in her voice.
The crushing beats are resurrected, bruising the strong and destroying the
frail. Death metal vocals accompany this repetitive, bottom heavy passage
for added dramatic effect as the drums become increasingly metallic. The
drums eventually disappear and a subdued electronic humming, like a swarm of
robotic locusts, creeps underneath industrial beats. The track continues
its shifting dynamics as it rises into a raging titan methodically plodding
through this scorched-earth landscape reaching an angry crescendo at the 34
minute mark. All that remains after that is a throbbing bass and
thunderous set of guitars and drums. The high-pitched guitar leaves a
slight glimmer of optimism despite the overt hopelessness of the album.
Overmars has created an album of pure darkness, devoid of hope that exhales
dread and apprehension like a the smoke from a crematorium. This is an
odyssey only for the foolish and the suicidal.