Hyperviolence (2020) is the first and only release of Houston, Texas Metalcore band Omerta. On their debut, which is just a little over 15 minutes, Omerta gave everyone an impression that they’re a part of a recent movement of several bands driven by Y2K nostalgia, something that’s become more and more popular in recent years. Since bands like Deftones have become every TikTok non-metal listener woman’s favorite band, this trend has affected the musical landscape so much that a handful of mainstream bands have jumped on it. Like Motionless in White, Poppy, Ghostemane, Slaughter to Prevail, and the band Knocked Loose have gone on tours opening for Slipknot, Motionless and White and Bring Me the Horizon. Omerta’s album Hyperviolence made them one of the leading forces in the underground of this movement. What sets them apart is that they actually appear to have a strong creative side, like Nu Metal originally had, instead of just calling a bunch of metalcore riffs nu metal and then doing a Slipknot impression on top. This is definitely a metalcore band however they adopted a good amount of nu metal’s interesting guitar riff ideas and effects. They include a lot of well-arranged electronic parts on the side as well. This genre fusion has become extremely popular recently, thanks to Emmure and Cane Hill and Vein. But plenty of bands have successfully combined Nu Metal and Metalcore before, like Chimaira, 36 Crazyfists As a super fan of rap metal bands like Hed (P.E.), Bizkit, Stuck Mojo, P.O.D. and stuff like that, it's refreshing to hear someone try to pull off a fusion of rap and nu metal. The problem is that his rapping parts are arranged in such a scattered way that they usually don't make a lasting impression on each song. They're mixed so few and far between the harsh vocals that they lose it as a selling point for the band. And every moment that there's a bit of coherent songwriting doesn't last long. It doesn't help that they rush to finish each song. It doesn't come across like a rap metal record and just seems like way more of a metalcore project in that aspect, but a lot of urban flavor definitely gets across just fine. The opener Payback is a pretty standard affair for current metalcore that does a good job at getting your attention. The second track “I love you” kicks out the black person impressions with a great outro breakdown. The riffs here are very creative and there are a few short moments of rapping. The bands I mentioned earlier like Hed (PE), Bizkit, P.O.D., would distinctly separate each part of rap and metal to find a balance but they seem to thrive off this label of their sound being hyper, which just ends up being more metalcore than actual rap metal. So while they have a minimal impact on the rap metal side of things, overall they're still memorable, You have to admit this is really creative stuff, so it makes sense why they cut every song so short through a quality over quantity kind of perspective. The next song Benny Boy there’s some pretty well done whammy pedal usage, and that part specifically seems like a riff idea Wes Borland could have had while recording Limp Bizkit’s first album, Three Dollar Bill Y’all. I wish it was just a one-time thing. But the title track (which is really good up until this) used the whammy pedal in a nonsensical sort of way. Then it ends with a random ass acoustic guitar where the frontman starts singing like MGK or some shit. Sorry but this isn’t Radiohead, this is supposed to be metal. The most noteworthy song is Garbage, which has a spoken word intro that sounds like Randy from My Name is Earl My main issue is how short this is and how they’ve been taking all kinds of photoshoots, interviews, constantly making press releases and promoting shit when it’s been 5 years since making anything. And even then, all they’ve done is this EP that’s less than 10 minutes. And when it comes to what they’re doing next, I don’t know what to expect, but I’m leaning on definitely not expecting anything like they played here. It seems like what they’re going for with this hyper style is going to be the death of them. Not to mention they look a lot gayer now than they did when they released this album. I mean, at least they looked somewhat like a metal in band pictures but nowadays they look homo as shit. The dudes are dressing up like after playing a concert they’re going to straight up play with Barbie dolls. I mean I’d get it if you were actually someone like radiohead or bring me the horizon but this is metal. Even nu metal and metalcore, you can get away with some wigger clothes, like over-sized shirts and pants sagging below your knees. Backwards baseball hats with flat brims, but they couldn’t handle just doing that. So they look like they might be playing for the other team.