In The Woods... "Omnio"

Omnio is the second full-length album by Norwegian avant-garde metal band In the Woods... It was released on October 14, 1997, through Misanthropy Records.

Track listing

1."299 796 km/s" 14:46

2."I Am Your Flesh" 7:07

3."Kairos!" 3:34

4."Weeping Willow" 11:39

5."Omnio"  26:02

I. "Omnio? – Pre" (11:59)

II. "Omnio? – Bardo" (5:54)

III. "Omnio? – Post" (8:09)"

The titles of the three tracks "Omnio? – Pre", "Omnio? – Bardo", and "Omnio? – Post" are related. Pre is a prefix used to say "before", Bardo is a Tibetan word for "intermediate state", and Post is a prefix meaning "after".

At around 6:00 of "Omnio? – Pre", female voices can be heard singing in French. The lyrics of this portion of the song are not listed in the album, however the words "j'espère que tous les autres" (meaning "I hope that everyone else") can be heard multiple times. The following three syllables are hard to understand.

In the booklet lyrics of "Weeping Willow", all the text is in lower case except for a bunch of letters. The content (if any) of this cryptographic message is still unknown.

In his review for AllMusic, Thom Jurek calls Omnio a "devastatingly beautiful marriage of prog metal, gothic texture, epic scope, and amazingly intricate, deeply moving songwriting for a tour de force that stands as one of European metal's classic recordings." He claims the album has "remained deeply influential since its initial release in 1997."

Session:

The Dust Quartet (on tracks 1, 5 to 7).

Recorded, mixed and produced by In The Woods... and Hans K. Eidskard at Jailhouse Studio between September 1996 and March 1997.

Mastered at Masterhuset AS, Oslo, Norway.