In the 90's, when the Norwegian Black Metal scene was entangled in chaos due the churches' arsons and murders, it was a golden time for the genre as well. In those days, some amazing albums were released, creating the basis for many successful bands from Norway. DARKTHRONE, BURZUM, MAYHEM, EMPEROR, IMMORTAL, SATYRICON, ENSLAVED and others took the Metal scene by assault with extreme (and excellent) musical works. Today, some heirs of those days appear throughout the world, as later echoes of a moment when musical creativeness was in its peak. So an album as "Praecipitium", from the Canadian quartet OMNIPOTENCE can sound old fashioned, but it's very good.

Heavily influenced by Norwegian Black Metal acts as DARKTHRONE, MAYHEM and EMPEROR, their music can go from fast blasting tempos to slower funereal moments. But to say that the band bears such set of musical influences don't mean that they are a carbon copy of them. No, it's not what happens on this album. They have a personal insight on Black Metal, gathering some Old School Thrash Metal influences in some moments, creating songs without technical exaggerations, with very good harsh melodies and hooking energy. Yes, they're pretty good! The sound quality of "Praecipitium" is not as moldy and crude as Black Metal used to be on the earlier days of the 90s. It's good, trying to balance the harsh sound of the past with a level of clarity that is near of what the modern technologies allowed the bands to reach. It sounds organic and with the famous "ugly aesthetics" that is usual to Black Metal, but in a way that the listener can understand what is being played.

The contrast between fast tempos and slow moments of "Paths to Oblivion" (harsh and seductive guitar riffs), the brutal Black Metal grasp of "Composite Forms of Sound and Thought" (another excellent set of guitar riffs, but with very good vocals as well), the charming and funereal melodies of the slow moments of "The Emptiness that Breathes", the oppressive feeling created by the rhythm of "Lethiferous" (good bass guitar and drums parts), and the sharp melodies of "Beyond the Boundaries of Being" (shaped by simple and charming melodies) are samples of a good work that OMNIPOTENCE unleashes, but that still don't show what they're truly able to do.

For now, "Praecipitium" is a very good work, indeed, but the quartet is talented enough to dare to fly higher.