In The Woods... 2nd Album - Omnio - in my memory

In The Woods...  Omnio (1997)

I was absorbed in "In The Woods..." since I listened to 1st Album "HEart Of The Ages", when I was high school student. I could not find any informations about In the Woods... on Japanese magazines & radios after the feature article that was also written about them. I expected that there are no magazine writers' interest nor sales promotion by any record labels. I gave up getting information from Japanese media, and I tried to search for foreign web site through internet with dial-up system, that my home had introduced in those days. Then I found In the Woods... web site, that was named "Wandering In the Woods..." if I remembered rightly.

But I could not read all of English sentences easily, so I tried hard to read fragments, then I found information of releasing 2nd Album. I had not seen such information on Japanese magazines, so I expected that Japanese edition of 2nd album was not going to be released. These days, we can easily get even albums of any generally unknown foreign bands with internet. However we could not in that day.
 What I could trust for getting 2nd album was only Disc Union /Ochanomizu Heavy Metal shop.

Ochanomizu Station

*Ochanomizu is one of town near Akihabara in Tokyo Japan. Many music shops, especially music instruments shops, are concentrated around Ochanomizu station. If you like music instruments such as electric/ acoustic/ classical guitars, bass guitar, drums, strings, and so on, when you will come to Tokyo, I recommend going to Ochanomizu.
Street view : Ochanomizu guitar street

I visited Disc Union in Ochanomizu after released date of 2nd album "Omnio" that was informed on In The Woods... web site. I searched for Omnio around black metal area, but I could not find it. So I asked a staff on counter.

Me: "Excuse me. Is there In The Woods... 2nd album from Norway in this shop?"

Staff: "Well.. You said Heavenwood?"

Me: " No, In The Woods..."

Staff: "I don't know that...  just a moment"

he said so, and told someone behind the counter. Then a man appeared from behind the counter, who seemed like a manager.

Manager: "You said In The Woods..., didn't you? I heard that their new album has been released in Europe, but we don't have order sheets for it yet. So now I don't know when it will arrive "

Wow! How great Manager of Disc Union is!  He has known even In The Woods...'s movement! His rich knowledge impressed me, but I disappointed that I could not get the new album. After that, I had visited Disc Union several times, then new album finally arrived, I could get 2nd album "omnio"

Back of CD version

I set the CD to player as soon as I arrived home. 1st track is "299796km/s", that means "speed of light". It has a little different with present measurement speed.
At introduction, melancholic harmony with strings sounds, by Dust Quartet. Following that, guitars, bass, drums & keyboard start playing. Guitar plays melody with backing. It is calm but filled with sadness just like it wrings my heart.
Reverb effect is reduced than it of 1st album. and sounds got clearer. Because of this change,  I felt so, kind of sadness also changed. The sadness on 1st album was  intense emotion released to outside such as crying out for something in the cold woods. On the other hand, sadness of 2nd album OMNIO is introspective emotion, increased at inside of mind, compressed by own pressure. It's like asking oneself again and again, and suffering to find answer to self.

Male vocalist started singing calmly with gentle voice, guitars' melodies harmonized exquisitely. Following that, female vocalist started singing. This harmony with instruments and mixed voices shift up to emotional storm section with tremolo guitar riff. and it accelerate.
I feel no aggression on this tremolo section, but it makes me feel rather like sadness increasing without finding a cause of this emotion. Just as if seeking after something unseen. Noises caused by guitars tremolo bring me image that storm of agony blasting in mind. Vocal with crying out of black metal faded away from this album OMNIO.
Singing with clean voice on backing with tremolo guitars might help increasing sadness. Following tremolo section, quartet with strings play sorrowful harmonic melody.  After that, male vocalist sings calmly, and guitar plays cords & arpeggio with clean tone. And then tremolo section comes again, this is not same pattern as aforementioned tremolo section. This song doesn't include easy repetitions, though run time is such almost 15 minutes.  It is composited from each various parts just like symphony of orchestra.
After 2nd tremolo section, the song shows various expression,  and it reaches finale that is composed by harmony with 3 guitars and strings majestically & movingly.

299796km/s

When this song ended, my eyes were filled with tears. I had not got emotion such as this ever in my experience that I have listened to music. And I did not understand lyrics. Because I was not good with English, and I didn't need meaning of lyric to enjoy music. So my impression from this song is caused by only sound.

- Suffering from uncleared reason of sorrow.
- Struggling to find its cause.
- Getting a gleam of hope finally.

I felt like this in those days, this matched with my mind that I lost sight of the purpose in life. I had quited soccer(football) club of school.
"What am I living for?"
I often asked so to myself.
A pleasure for me was only music, such as listening to music and playing a guitar.

2nd album "Omnio" sound is not just only far apart from black metal, moreover I feel it is not even Heavy metal, but rather closer to classical music. Omnio was categorized as Gothic Metal in Disc Union.
1st track is easier to listen than other tracks, and its sound also includes positive atmosphere. But the tone are getting more thoughtful and more sorrowful after 1st track. However I like this atmosphere of the album OMNIO. As reasons why I am attracted by Omnio and especially 299796km/s,
1) Composition is not monotonous but is thought out never to bore listeners, even though run time is so long as about 15 minutes.
2) Harmony with 3 guitars, strings of quartet and male/female vocals bring spatial spreading of sound.

I expect In the Woods... took much time for arrangement of every tunes.

When I was a child who didn't know even Heavy metal, I liked songs that includes dignified harmony such as Japanese national anthem "Kimi-ga-yo" or "Daichi sanshou (Praise for the earth)" that is often sung on a graduate ceremony of a school. I suppose my tendency of favorite music based on childhood.

Daichi sanshou (Praise for the earth)

When I researched informations about Omnio for this contribution on internet, I found a article of a interview with In the Woods.... But this was written in Norwegian. Of course I can't read Norwegian. So I used translation software to understand it. A several informations, what I could understand, will be given below, it might be not correctly.
→Link to interveiw
Though I could not find when this interview was held, there was not only re-union members but also Vocalist / Jan Kenneth and guitarist-producer / Bjørn Harstad.
Christian Botteri, as a original member, composed basic of tunes. but finalizing all were not done by only himself, other members' opinions incorporated into tunes. They told In the Woods... is democratic band like that. Composing for Omnio was the same, Bjørn added his thought into basic plans brought by Christian. Especially it took much time of arranging harmony with 3 guitars, according to Bjørn.
I expected, singers' thoughts might incorporated into vocal melody,  quartet thought might done into harmony of strings. I think that for bass and drums were the same. I wondered who is a main composer. But when I  read those interview, I realized this album "Omnio" was composed by all the people who concerned recording , and it could not be achieved without situation caused at that time. I was looking for a similar album to Omnio, but I gave up doing so because nothing can be instead of Omnio. I want to enjoy the album more as special gift from In the Woods... .