THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND
Sumerian Records
Release: 25 February 2022
I have such an odd history with Bad Omens. I had tried for nearly 5 years to see the band live before finally getting the chance earlier this year while they toured with Ice Nine Kills. Since that live show my obsession with their music grew exponentially. After months of lock-downs, working from home, and no concerts, Bad Omens became my #1 streamed band in 2020 and continued into 2021. With the release of the band’s 3rd full length album, that obsession will likely lead to near OCD music levels.
Leading up to the album release, Bad Omens have shared music videos for the album’s title track “THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND”, along with “ARTIFICIAL SUICIDE” and “Like A Villain” which combined have clocked up over 3.5 million views on YouTube, and the single releases (including “What do you want from me”) have totaled over 16 million streams across platforms.
The band’s third full length release is everything that any fan of the band could have hoped for or expected. While we’ve had the chance to now hear 5 of the album’s cuts, they only scratch the surface of what Bad Omens is set to release upon the world. The albums is more than just a sum of its individual parts. As a whole, I believe the album can be heard as a concept piece focusing on love and loss. The cuts ebb and flow between denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, the five stages of grief.
The tracks you’ve already heard may crash into the shores of the brain but there is more to TDOPOM than just those brutally heavy songs. We got a glimpse at the soothing and more melodic side of the band with The Grey, but the way the band melds and twists so many different genres into each track is absolutely brilliant.
Working with Jesse Cash (ERRA, Ghost Atlas), Bad Omens have broken the status quo of what “metalcore” has become known for, and crafted something entirely unique that will likely be copied and cloned for years to come. While there are still glimpses of those dark, edgy and angry vocals from Noah Sebastian, and Joakim Karlsson and Nicholas Ruffilo’s face smashing riffs, that energy is even more laser focused on TDOPOM and pinpointed into a definitive forward direction.
From the hypnotic intro for Concrete Jungle, the album’s opening track, melting into Nowhere to Go, the entire album is perfectly stitched together with Frankenstein’s level of monstrous precision. What It Cost, and Like a Villain could easily be one song with the way they seamlessly bleed into each other both lyrically and thematically. The truly heart-wrenching moments of the album come with Bad Decisions and Just Pretend. There’s an exceptional level of pain and heartache in Noah’s voice on each of these cuts that is worth making note of.
Every fan has their own expectations for what the album will bring, but I guarantee that TDOPOM will shatter every one of them.
THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND
BAD OMENS
Track Listing:
1. CONCRETE JUNGLE
2. Nowhere To Go
3. Take Me First
4. THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND
5. What It Cost
6. Like A Villain
7. bad decisions
8. Just Pretend
9. The Grey
10. Who are you?
11. Somebody else.
12. IDWT$
13. What do you want from me?
14. ARTIFICIAL SUICIDE
15. Miracle
