Life can be harsh and raw. How often do we take a roof over our heads, food, drink, healthcare, family or friends for granted? For many, that’s not the reality. They lack these basic needs and live in circumstances where peace, stability, and a sense of future are missing. Financial problems, conflicts, divorces, domestic violence, addiction, or mental health issues often lie at the root of it all … and sometimes it ends on the streets. In that harsh reality, stories emerge – from the homeless, but also from local residents, migrants, street artists, street coaches, community police officers, and shopkeepers – stories that show how people experience the street: full of challenges, resilience, solidarity, and dreams, but also poverty, loss, and loneliness. Stories of the street that give a voice to what might otherwise go unnoticed.
That is precisely the starting point for Omnium Gatherum on their new album May The Bridges We Burn Light The Way. The tenth album by the band from Kotka (Finland) is – and this is a first for the quintet – a concept album, albeit with a loose approach. Instead of following a continuous storyline, like in a book or film, the band chose a thematic direction: “stories of the street”. The songs tell tales based on the experiences of dreamers, demons, liars, and drifters. Walking Ghost Phase, for example, deals with addiction and the despair that comes with it; The Darkest City reflects the chaos of the modern world; and Ignite The Flame forms a warm plea for brotherhood and rebellion.
Where the previous album Origin (2021) leaned towards restraint and a more dreamy sound, Omnium Gatherum now – as already hinted at on the Slasher EP (2023) – fully returns to the characteristics that define the band. On May The Bridges We Burn Light The Way, the five-piece once again focuses on what they do best: writing captivating melodic lines that lodge themselves in your ear canals and stay there for a long time. Album number ten is filled with modern, melodic death metal featuring sweeping, beautiful guitar lines, infectious melodies, intoxicating keyboards (The Darkest City), biting riffs (Ignite The Flame), searing solos (Barricades), and choruses that stick (My Pain, The Last Hero, Walking Ghost Phase). The deep, powerful vocals cut straight through it all, yet shift easily into more melodic passages, ensuring that – however accessible the songs may be – they never lose their raw intensity. By reclaiming their signature sound, the band has clearly regained energy, vitality, and fluidity.
As Omnium Gatherum tradition dictates, this album once again includes an instrumental track – or rather, two. Both the opening and title track, as well as the closing Road Closed Ahead, are entirely free of vocals. May The Bridges We Burn Light The Way proves to be a highly attractive, playful prelude to the album. Wouldn’t it have been more logical, though, to let this fresh introduction flow seamlessly into My Pain? As it stands, there’s no real connection, and the track feels somewhat isolated – an issue that crops up more than once on the record. And if anyone can explain the meaning of those fifteen seconds of guitar playing that suddenly appear at the end of The Darkest City, after two beats of dead silence, I’d love to hear it. You know the saying a day late and a dollar short? Well, that’s exactly what this is.
Score:
80/100
Label:
Century Media Records, 2025
Tracklisting:
- May the Bridges We Burn Light the Way
- My Pain
- The Last Hero
- The Darkest City
- Walking Ghost Phase
- Ignite the Flame
- Streets of Rage
- Barricades
- Road Closed Ahead
Line-up:
- Jukka Pelkonen – Vocals
- Markus Vanhala – Guitar, vocals
- Aapo Koivisto – Keyboards
- Mikko Kivistö – Bass guitar, vocals
- Atte Pesonen – Drums
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