With a goal to combine his love of good food with his love of great death metal, Tony Rouse founded At the Plates. Moving away from the instrumental sound that was in the EP Garden Salads of Grief (2018), the band started to add not only words, but themes into their music which were showcased on their 2020 debut album Starch Enemy.
If Garden Salads of Grief was an amuse-bouche and Starch Enemy was an hors d’oeuvre, then their forthcoming sophomore album Omnivore would be the main course.
On the inspiration of the album, Tony says,
“Omnivore is inspired by my own personal life experiences. Several years ago I experienced some massive complications with my health, and it forced me to re-examine my lifestyle choices. While I don’t think people should cut themselves off from anything, I think it’s also important to live your life in balance, for various reasons.”
The band’s recipe for their sound is,
- Generous heap of Gothenburg’s 1990s death metal
- 2 cups of Floridian death metal
- 1 and a half tablespoons of New York death metal
- 1 to 2 teaspoons of dissonant black metal
- Set oven to 666 degrees and let it bake for 20 minutes
And Omnivore is precisely that.
Stacked with ten songs that will satiate the appetite of any metal fan, the album explores a ‘you are what you eat mentality’ through light hearted lyrics and savage rhythms.
Opening with a song about a cannibalistic neighbour, “With Their Cutlets” wastes no time on bringing the heat with its literal sizzling and bone crushing beats and offers a thought to ponder, where does your food really come from?
“Kitchen Gone” and “Punish My Waistline” both have blast beats galore and are deliciously divine tracks from start to finish. They’re aggressive, loud, and in your face, but the guitar work in “Punish My Waistline” is some of the best on the album. The melodic pattern of the guitars offers a less metal more rock vibe that makes me think of icons like Randy Rhoads and Zack Wylde.
Despite its heaviness, “Terminal Filet Disease” has a message of light and hope. Letting you know that it’s never too late to change yourself. The seven plus minute track includes the vocals of Danica Amore who ferociously brings the heat and flavour to the song.
The title track, “Omnivore”, finds the band returning to its instrumental roots with a quiet, subtle, and sombre song. It’s a moment of reprieve from the heavy and bombastic beats.
Discover what happens to college kids when they’re kidnapped trying to break into Roswell with “Roastwell 47” and confront food addiction with “Open Buffet Surgery”. The latter includes gutturals from Ryan Wolanski and both are blistering tracks filled with wailing guitars and thundering drums.
The final tracks, “Incarnated Syrup Abuse”, “Into Everlasting Fryer”, and “Northern Frites”, At the Plates round at Omnivore with cutthroat tracks that sizzle and shake with frenzy and fury.
Omnivore is a gastronomic culinary saga seasoned with deep growls, seared with death metal, and served with a bit of humour.
MUST LISTEN TRACKS: “Punish My Waistline”, “Terminal Filet Disease”, “Omnivore”, “Into the Everlasting Fryer”
A deluxe edition, which contains two additional bonus tracks, will be available exclusively on Bandcamp.
