Review by Rexorcist for In the Woods... - Omnio (1997)

Not long after I turned it on, I noticed a huge improvement in production.  A man named Hans Eidskard produced it with the band.  The percussions, the production / guitar tone combo, the vocals and the rhythms were ALL improved right then and there... for the time being.  Although it's not a black metal album, we still get some fairly effective instances of tremolo-picking.  And I only got three minutes in at the time.  I found myself thinking, "Please PLEASE keep this up.  This is an prog and potential avant-garde album after all, so if I don't see Beefheart consistency I'll be upset."  The album was still going for the "switch up the song every few minutes" route with its longer stuff.  Unfortunately, the opener still managed to drag with its fifteen minutes.

I was hardly getting an "avant-garde" approach other than changing the exact sound of each track and maybe having the singer sing to a rhythm that doesn't fully work with the rhythms of the instrumentals.  Of course, Wikipedia said that and not RYM... but still, the progressive elements were more Floydian rather than standard, relying on using repetition and conflicting elements to create odd sensations for atmospheric purposes.  Eventually the album just felt like a cut and paste work because of their behavior from the previous album being applied to other areas that didn't flow quite as well, so I gradually began to lose interest, and once Omnio - Pre started I kinda just used the album for background music, despite the fact that I was still paying attention.

Well, this album certainly didn't satisfy my needs past the first ten minutes.  It's a nice exercise in atmosphere, but this album made me way less interested in even trying out their third album, so I don't think I will this time.  I'll check it out later.  For now, I feel no need to return to this album.