Acid Gambit - Omen

In October of 2017 Acid Gambit's journey into the depths of synthwave, science fiction, horror, and industrial inspired music began when they covered the theme song from Tales From The Darkside. The song originally appeared on Neo-LA's compilation "Neo-LA Presents: Grave Wave Vol. 1" which featured fellow electronic enthusiasts Dredd, Microchip Terror, FacexHugger, and many more. But for a fresh face to appear alongside decorated vets within the scene meant that there was something emerging out of Acid Gambit. The project's love for synthesizers culminated in their 2017 debut album "Nemesis", a ten track album that released in digital, CD, and cassette formats. Met with positive reception for their more EBM inspired take on a sci-fi setting, this was where Acid Gambit began to take off. 

Their 2018, follow-up album "Phenomenon" was met with equal praise as well. Adoring fans flocked to purchase the album as the sci-fi, 50's and 60's B-movie, and synthwave influences shined. While their previous effort strictly revolved around electro and EBM, "Phenomenon" was where Acid Gambit found their true calling mixing strong dance elements from the rougher sides of industrial with retro-synth feels a la synthwave. 2019's "Entity" continued Acid Gambit's romp where the project explored their EBM roots once more. This has all built up to their most recent album "Omen". 



"Omen" is a quasi-follow-up to "Entity" in terms of story-telling; you can even see the same little alien creature that was on the cover art of "Entity" on the cover art for "Omen". However, sound design is completely different. Leaving behind dance elements, "Omen" is a concentration on the darker theme of 2020 which has hit mostly everyone in a negative way. I heard this on the first track of the album, 'Impact', where guitars were met with heavier, thumping bass elements that trickled at a slower pace than what I was used to on Gambit's previous releases. This is not an instrumental that I would find on a dancefloor, but it's rather an angry song for angry times. 

Acid Gambit's focus on sound exploration and depth comes to fruition in 'Forbidden Knowledge'. I almost think that this song should have started off the album as its wicked ambiance and decreased pace made for cinematic flair. I also found myself listening to a song that could have been produced by John Carpenter himself should the Master of Horror ever develop a love for industrial. That song is 'Into the Forest'. I don't know about you, but being compared to one of the giants in horror should be a compliment and if you don't take it as one, then I don't know what to tell you. 

Some songs such as 'Secret War' up the tempo but still avoid becoming an all out dance thriller. Giving electro a spin while avoiding a beat that becomes too heavy, 'Secret War' develops a welcome break in between all the spookier, science fiction themes the album has so far offered. I could continue in my redundant praise for Acid Gambit's work on the album, talking about how 'Pillar of Light' is a wonderful experimental piece of futuristic bewilderment, or how 'Ancient Remains' is a song of ominous warnings, but it would also be fun to save a few surprises for you. 

Despite the general praise I hold for the majority of the album, I found myself cocking an eyebrow when I hit the final song on the album 'It's Alive'. It sounded raw and unfinished to me; while the rest of the songs had brilliant production and sounded full and lively, 'It's Alive' feels undeveloped. Another complaint I had on the album was that songs abuse samples from other movies. 'Synthetic Humans' begins with samples and 'Into the Forest' has them throughout the run of the song, for example. I understand that Acid Gambit has a huge hard-on for sci-fi B-movies, but when you're instrumentals sound as good as this, you don't need samples to finish out the song. Just let your mastery of the synthesizer do the talking. 

Alas, I cannot end this review on a negative note. While the complaints I had above are not negligible and discounting the one song I did not enjoy from the album, there's still over a half-hour of material on "Omen" that's worthy of both my attention and yours. This is all wrapped around a fun little concept album about mysterious meteorites, shadow governments, and otherworldly children. Better get that imagination pumping and listening to this album. 

This review was commissioned through our Ko-fi page. Feel free to check it out for review, interview, and premiere opportunities. 
Nov 29 2020