OMNIVIDE

track-list:
Clarity
Opulence
Desolate
A Tale of Fire
Cosmic Convergence
Holy Killer
Death Be Not Proud
Stoned Dragon

all songs written and produced by Samuel Frenette and Nicolas Pierre Boudreau
mixed and mastered by François Fortin – La Boîte Noire

Omnivide are:
Samuel Frenette – guitar, vocals
Nicolas Pierre Boudreau – guitar
Alex Cormier – bass
Samuel Lavoie – keyboards
Marc-André Richard – drums

Omnivide:
“We think people who either have heard us live or are discovering us for the first time will at the very least view the album as something original, and often not following common metal tropes. It’s not to say that we don’t have some more typical riffs or that we are reinventing the wheel, but our song structures are very progressive with less straightforward repetition, as we instead focus on evolving musical motifs and concepts throughout the songs in a way that binds them together. We think people who enjoy prog will enjoy that form of songwriting. With this album, we are trying to provide a musical journey that people can listen through from start to finish while remaining engaged. The highs and lows in intensity and the various emotional tones of the songs, which range from dark and brutal to emotional and beautiful, provide contrasts that keep things interesting and moving. We are trying to cover lots of grounds musically, as we are all fans of progressive music, ranging from the 70s until today, in which a common element is this feeling that a complete story is told in each album. We want listeners to feel the pure excitement and energy of our heavier sections, and moments later vibe to a beautiful clean section, and have the compounding effect of those contrasting parts result in a unique experience that is deeply satisfying and rewarding musically.”
“Musically, the album is a blend of our favorite elements from progressive metal, technical death metal, death metal, and symphonic/power metal. There are some very heavy/dark riffs, some very grandiose/more epic sections with lots of orchestral instruments, as well as lighter/cleaner sections with clean vocals. From these various elements, the pacing of the album is that of a rollercoaster ride in terms of intensity, but we definitely lean much more toward the heavier side than the lighter side overall. The song structures are very progressive, with fewer repeating parts, though we do use repetition and if we don’t we bring back similar melodic or rhythmic ideas throughout songs to make them feel more like complete pieces of music. Our goal with the songs is to make listeners feel an overwhelming urge to headbang to the heavier sections, feel the strong emotions of the more grandiose/epic sections, and feel the mysterious energy of the cleaner/more laid-back sections.”
“Lyrically, the songs on the album are broadly about us trying to understand death, both as a tragedy and a natural part of life, the pain it brings, and the resilience that can be born from it. This can mean the physical death of an individual, our planet, the universe, or a person’s internal fire and lust for life. We use storytelling in some songs as a vehicle for this, and since we love fantasy media, the content of these stories has fantasy elements, while also weaving in deeper concepts of death, hardship, regret, and growth. Other songs revolve around historical figures, while others are mostly metaphorical, but all are linked together by this exploration of all aspects of death.”
All recording was done in the band members’ home studios, save for drums which were recorded by François Fortin at Studio La Boîte Noire.
François also mixed and mastered the album.
The album artwork is a representation of the overarching themes of the album.
“At first glance, it’s quite obvious that it’s a fantasy-inspired art piece and as mentioned we do use fantasy as a vehicle to tell some of the stories in our songs. On a deeper level, the fire-breathing dragon and the general abundance of fire in the artwork represent death in all its brutality, as well as its cleansing power and the potential for rebirth that it also brings. The cloaked wizard in the lower center and the burning planet in the middle of the artwork represent the channeling of the hardship and pain that death brings into growth, showing that we can become better, wiser, and more powerful beings by harnessing the lessons from the harshest realities of life.”
As a whole, the artwork represents the constantly moving process of death, rebirth, and growth.
The symbolism of fire on the album cover and album title relates to the central theme of death & rebirth in the lyrics throughout the album, as the destruction that fire brings leaves a clean slate for new things to take place.
‘Clarity’:
“This song was written by Sam Frenette. Musically, ‘Clarity’ has more of a melodic aspect to it, starting with a clean intro that evolves into a grandiose opening to the album with the full band and orchestral instruments. The song then descends into progressive death metal madness, oscillating between dark/evil sections and more melodic and epic sections. There is a haunting clean section before the final outro of the song, and is composed first by a blackened death metal riff, followed by a melodic outro and an epic, heavily punchy ending. Generally, the riffs of this song are heavy yet melodic, with heavy orchestral and synthesizer layers complimenting the interactions between the guitar, bass, and drums.”
“Lyrically, the song is about the disillusionment one experiences when growing up regarding the harsh realities of life, and the suffering that the difficulty of accepting these realities can bring. It’s written from the perspective of an individual, and from these realizations come the awareness that they have not led a perfect life themselves, and the pain of knowing how they might have hurt others adds to this suffering, ultimately leading them to refuse to continue living, with the last lyrics being
‘Tearing my own flesh down to the bone
Such pain to erase all I’ve ever known
Nothing left of me but a longing for home
I will return by shedding this form'”
‘Opulence’:
“This song was written by Sam Frenette. Musically, ‘Opulence’ is a more straightforward death metal song orchestration-wise, with fewer orchestral instruments and synthesizers than most songs on the album. It is a more brutal song with lots of groovy riffs and no clean sections. It maintains the progressive approach to songwriting, however. It starts with an in-your-face fast alternate picking lead melody, and transitions into groovy death metal with a progressive edge to the riffs, culminating in a chorus that is the same progression and melody as the intro of the song. Then comes a riff that starts at an increased tempo with drum punches only, embracing the classic old-school death/thrash metal trope, which transitions through chaotic riffs with vocals, into a final, groovy ending with a dissonant guitar solo.”
“Lyrically, the song is about our planet, and how humans were born from it, yet have reached a point where they are essentially consuming it to death. Hence the name ‘Opulence’, which alludes to the fact that humanity is living in the best, richest conditions in history, at the cost of consuming our planet’s resources in a way that can only be described as gluttony. The last lyrics of the song illustrate this sentiment:
‘Will we stop gouging our dying mother?
Or be gluttons with her flesh and blood?'”
‘Desolate’:
“This is a song that Nicolas started when he was 19, and the intention was to write a heavy/fast song any young metalhead would mosh and thrash to. The goal was to write a theme that you hear in the intro and have it come back in different writing styles throughout the song. The theme appears in the intro, the clean sections, and at the end. The goal was to write a song that kept evolving within its own ideas whether it be through the orchestral arrangement or the guitars. Eventually, all the riffs were arranged together to make it flow as if it were one gigantic riff.”
“Lyrically, Nicolas drew inspiration from Marcus Aurelius along with historical figures that became too powerful, something most people can’t relate to in modern times. There are a lot of hints of stoic ideas in the lyrics that can be relatable to anyone striving for self-improvement during chaotic times.”
‘A Tale of Fire’:
“This song was written by Nicolas and begins with a choir and orchestral intro that slowly builds into developing melodies in a manner similar to classical music. The intro makes the listener anticipate the arrival of the rest of the band, and when the full band does kick in, there is a sense that the song is going to metaphorically explode. There are a lot of old classical music techniques like counterpoint and dual melodies that make this song very tech-death until it slows down in the middle to make it more thrash sounding. The goal was to write more melodies with the keyboards and orchestral instruments to have the song be less guitar-oriented compared to the other songs on the album even though the guitar definitely has a lot going on. This song starts and ends with an orchestral arrangement only, almost like a storm passing by.”
“Lyrically, this song is a metaphor for someone or something who has completely lost control of themselves, being completely overwhelmed by their emotions, like a fire destroying everything in its path.”
‘Cosmic Convergence’:
“This song was written by Sam Frenette and begins in a relatively tame manner with a sweep-picked arpeggio melody accompanied by guitar, bass, and a choir/strings, with a drum buildup that transitions into a polyrhythmic riff over the same melody. From there, the song is composed of some fast/technical riffs, some more straightforward, but all very melodic with heavy layers of orchestration, and a lot of clean vocals compared to most songs on the album. This song is extremely high-octane in a melancholic and epic way, that tries to communicate the sense of desperation and urgency of the lyrics, with the song being about the end of the universe. It culminates in a final chorus before going into a dark melodic outro, built up with the band doing groovy punches over a distorted arpeggiated chord progression, and finally transitioning into an all-out ending section with tremolo picked guitars, blast-beating drums, an epic choir, and string arrangement, screaming vocals, and a melodic guitar solo to top it all off.”
“Lyrically, this song is about the Big Crunch, the opposite of the Big Bang, when astrophysicists predict that the universe will stop expanding and instead collapse on itself back to a single, infinitely small and dense point of matter. The lyrics describe this process in a poetic way in the first section of the song, with the final chorus shifting perspectives from that of the universe itself to a single human witnessing this process, with the lines
‘One final cry
Begging not to die
As all we are is swallowed by stars’.
The last part of the song focuses on this human perspective, and the pain/anguish of realizing that not only their own life, but the universe and existence itself is coming to an end.”
‘Holy Killer’:
“The song begins with a dark orchestral intro that was inspired by anything that is kept away in the dark, like the bottom of the deepest oceans. It is followed by relatively a simple chord progression with brutal screaming vocals, that then goes into a soft clean guitar interlude accompanied by a Mellotron, after which the song goes into full death metal mode. It’s the only song where we have dual solos between guitars and keyboards, almost like a conversation between the two of them. The song then ends with an outro that repeats a few times but builds up in terms of the vocals and orchestral layers.”
“Lyrically, this song is about someone who dies and is in limbo or in search of the afterlife he was promised by the gods he worships, but is instead brought to hell to atone for the evil deeds he performed throughout his life in the name of the very religion he worshipped.”
‘Death Be Not Proud’:
“This is a song written by Nicolas, who wrote most of the guitar on a classical guitar and wanted to write a prog metal song influenced by all the classical music he’s studied over the years. A lot of the guitar is influenced by a musician named Augustin Barrios Mangore, which is why a big portion of the song cannot be played with a guitar pick and must be finger-picked. This song is mainly composed of death metal with a lengthy clean section in the middle, which features Nicolas’ fingerpicking and some clean vocals.”
“Lyrically, this song is about a person meeting the Grim Reaper and begging the ghostly figure to kill the person they’ve become, so that they can be reborn and given another chance at a good life, avoiding the mistakes of their previous lifetime.”
‘Stoned Dragon’:
“This song was written by Sam Frenette and is the slowest song on the album. The first half of the song is overall dark and haunting, beginning with an ethereal choir intro that then goes into a slow, hypnotic riff with growling vocals. The chorus that follows is dark and melodic, increasing the energy a bit before going back through the verse and chorus. There is then a transition riff that ups the aggression quite a bit, leading to a double-time riff that starts with one guitar accompanied by full band punches. This section builds up for a few repetitions before ending in a very heavy and aggressive breakdown. The end of the song is then a long buildup sprinkled with guitar solos and synthesizers, culminating in a final epic section with rhythmically intricate guitars and a grandiose choir to give a big dramatic ending to the album.”
“Lyrically, the song is a story about a dragon whose duty is to protect a village. He used to be human and the leader of that village but had to sacrifice himself and become a dragon to protect his people. Centuries have passed since then, and the villagers have forgotten that the dragon is their ancient leader and meant to be their protector, and instead fear him and view him as a monster. This angers the dragon over years and years until he loses control and burns down the village in anger, ending his own life at the end in deep regret at his loss of control that led him to murder the people he was meant to protect. There are a couple of lines in the song about the dragon smoking weed in an attempt to calm himself:
‘Inner fire restrained, herbs burning
Herb no longer soothing, he will hurt his kind’
Hence the name ‘Stoned Dragon’ but the title can also be interpreted as the dragon being stoned to death by the villagers (by throwing actual stones at him) or even the dragon turning to stone when he dies.”
Formed in 2020, Omnivide was formed by the members of a previous Opeth Tribute project called Sunbird.
The members wanted to move on from paying homage to one of their greatest influences and to begin writing music of their own.
They had in mind to write progressive metal that combined the sound of all their favorite groups such as Obscura, Opeth, Alkaloid, Devin Townsend and more into a sound of their own.
After a few early line-up changes, the current lineup was formed, save for bassist Alex Cormier who replaced Alex Olmstead in 2023.
The members of the band all knew each other and collaborated together on various levels before the band was first put together.
Three members went to high school together, and there were multiple musical projects that had some combination of Omnivide’s members before this project.
The members therefore know each other very well and have learned to collaborate efficiently together over the course of many years, sharing similar musical intuitions and tastes that make the writing process smooth and exciting.
The band spent the years 2020 and 2021 writing the songs for their first album, sculpting their sound down to the fine details, while also sharpening their audio engineering skills that would enable them to achieve their sonic vision.
They worked to strike a balance between heavy, technical, progressive and symphonic elements, in the hopes of delivering a unique sound that would stand out amongst the ocean of bands that populate the music industry.
2022 and early 2023 were spent recording the songs for their debut album, which were all done in their home studios save for the drums which were recorded by François Fortin at Studio La Boîte Noire.
The band also started playing live shows that year, performing all over Atlantic Canada in staple venues such as Xeroz and Broken Record and remain active today, expanding their fanbase with every show they play.
Omnivide once played a show that was so badly promoted that only 5 people were present at the beginning of their set.
However, a few more people arrived up and stayed during the show and they explained afterward that they were a country band who’d just finished playing a show in a venue close by.
They heard the band playing as they were walking past the bar and apparently enjoyed it enough to stay for the rest of the set.
This made the evening feel meaningful even though the band had not played in front of many people.
The band is now preparing for the release of their debut album ‘A Tale of Fire’, which is set for March 22, 2024.