Omni, Pt. 1

[8] Palmquist, Matt Marquez, Grayson Stewart and Cory Brandan, all from Norma Jean, helped write and perform on the album.

[9] The album is a radical departure from the band's established sound, with the style being that of modern metalcore and Andrew Schwab employing death growls as opposed to his usual talk-yelling.

To be honest, I had a hankering to take the sound of the band in a heavier direction for a very long time, really, since Drawing Black Lines was released.

"The lyrics are visual and narrative in nature," Schwab explains, "exploring a fictitious world in the not-so-distant future that projects forward our current reality, especially as it relates to technology.

A massively powerful corporation called Omni—led by an influential businessman/dictator named Alexander Ophis—has asserted dominance over the whole world via three life-altering innovations: The Pulse: An mRNA genetic implant which has the power to regulate human emotion through algorithms; The Optic: an ocular/neural interface which supplants smartphones, allowing users to see virtual artifacts in their natural field of vision, introducing augmented and virtual reality into the physical world; and Organic Fission: a 100% sustainable energy source which gains its said energy from “organic sources” (humans in stasis who are disintegrated via atomic properties).

Without the fear of death, the true, dark nature of man emerges in the event; violence and anarchy eventually erupts in the formerly stately party, with the attendees and elite slaughtering one another.

After having supposedly been silenced, God intervenes and summons a massive meteor shower upon the tower, destroying it, the populace and the entirety of Omni City.

[16] Michael Weaver for Jesus Freak Hideout said, "Omni (Part 1) is undoubtedly the heaviest collection of songs that Schwab and Project 86 have ever released.

"[15] Metal Injection didn't post an official rating for Omni, but praised the album, comparing the band's genre shift to that of Code Orange.