Omnium Gatherum

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tarting in the autumn of 1996, Finnish band Omnium Gatherum released four demos. After signing to 'Rage of Achilles', the debut full-length album Spirits And August Light was released in April 2003.

That record deal didn't last long for by autumn of 2004 they signed to 'Nuclear Blast' to release the second album, Years in Waste. More technical, more progressive, colder and more sophisticated was the new recipe. Lyrically, it featured themes of wasted youth, depression and soul-loss.

In spring 2006 long-time singer Antti Filppu was replaced by Jukka Pelkonen (a.k.a. "J").

Stuck Here on Snakes Way arrived on April 2007 after a successful UK tour and a signing to 'Candlelight Records'. Tours with Dark Tranquillity, Caliban and Entombed soon followed.

The act's fourth album, The Redshift arrived in 2008 to make 24 on the Finnish album charts.

In the summer of 2008, bassist Eerik Purdon announced his departure, and in 2009, Toni Mäki replaced him.

In August 2010, Omnium Gatherum inked a deal with 'Lifeforce Records' for their next release. That news announcement was quickly followed by the departure of longtime rhythm guitarist Harri Pikka; the act chose to continue to operate as a 5-piece, using guitarist Joonas Koto (of Malpractice/Ex-To Die For/Ex-Hateframe) for live performances. The resulting album came shortly later in 2011. New World Shadows received acclaim, being called the best melodic Death metal record by some, renowned for its mixture of harmonizing melodies, along with typical Death/heavy metal guitars and drumming. The vocal styles varied from deep Death growls to clean vocals. The sound of the album was epic and progressive, influenced by the Gothenburg-style bands like At The Gates, In Flames, Dissection and Dark Tranquillity, but equally as much by mixtures of sounds developed by Iron Maiden, Death, Anathema and Megadeth, among others. On June 17 of that same year, it was announced that Joonas "Jope" Koto joined the act as their new full-time second guitarist.