The second album Warning Of Danger from 1985 from US heavy/power metal veterans OMEN finally after 24 years available again on limited music cassette.
MC limited to 350 black tapes, 5 panel J-card.
If you don't know Omen, then you're really missing out, and you shouldn't call yourself a metalhead until you've heard their first two albums. They were never a particularly original band, but they did kick ass. They kicked a whole lot of ass, in fact, playing a bare-knuckles, riffy, Iron Maidenish style of traditional heavy metal with the rough and ready, muscular vocals of the late J.D. Kimball at the helm, belting out some of the catchiest choruses you'll ever hear. This is one of those bands that just screams "METAL!" from every pore and opening. Omen lived and breathed heavy metal, and this album will never grow old, wither or die; escaping the clutches of Father Time by miles and miles. I've been playing this for a few weeks now, and it just keeps getting better.
People always call Battle Cry Omen's best album, but if you ask me, this is the best they ever got. Yeah, the debut was definitely a classic, but this one just overshadows it in every way possible. It's longer, and with way more variety between songs than on Battle Cry, where every song pretty much fell into the same mold all the way through. The songs here are easily distinguishable and much catchier than the debut, and the songwriting itself is polished up to a shimmering, Iron Maidenesque gloss that gives the whole thing a sense of coherence and balance. Not one track here is a dud, at all. We get anthemic headbangers like the title track, "March On," and the double-whammy heavy metal assault of "Make Me Your King" and "Red Horizon." Then we get faster cuts, like the speedy, power metal styled "Ruby Eyes (of the Serpent)," the fiery mini epic "Don't Fear the Night," and the monstrous chorus of the blazing heavy metal classic "Termination," which just flat out fucking kills, stupid lyrics aside. We get an instrumental titled "V.B.P.," which recalls Iron Maiden's old days with a healthy dose of fire and fury, and while I may not have a clue what it stands for, it does serve as a well-placed heavy metal kick in the teeth. "Hell's Gates" closes things off with grandeur and class, and it's pretty much a ballad, but it's possibly the best song the band ever wrote, with Kimball's powerful operatic tenor lifting the song to celestial heights. As I said, there are no duds to be found here; every song rules.
It's tough to review a band like this, since there's so little to say about such a basic yet pleasing style of heavy metal. Warning of Danger is endlessly replayable and hooky as fuck, and if you have a shred of metal in you, it's a given that you'll love this. Go get it, right now.
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