No matter who you are or what you’re into, you’ll have stumbled across Bad Omens at least once. A band from Richmond, Virginia, formed in 2015, the four members are Noah Sebastian (vocals), Nick Folio (drums), Nicholas Ruffilo (bass), and Joakim “Jolly” Karlsson (guitar). Their music blends metalcore with alternative metal, melodic metalcore, nu metal, and industrial metal. They released their debut album in 2016, followed by ‘Finding God Before God Finds Me’ in 2019, and ‘The Death of Peace of Mind’ in 2022. Their song ‘Just Pretend’ became their most successful track, earning gold certification in 2023 and platinum in 2024, despite originally being a parody of "butt rock" hits. Yeah, this song was originally a “butt rock” parody but the lyrics hit hard. Exploring themes of conflicts in a relationship, respecting a partner’s space, hoping for a reconciliation, and just pretending to be fine with it all? Go figure why (and I’ll expose myself here), in the 12 years I’ve been using my chosen streaming platform, ‘Just Pretend’ is my seventh most played song of all time. Their latest release is ‘Concrete Jungle [The OST]’ serving as a soundtrack for their comic book universe, where they are depicted as a crime syndicate in the lawless Concrete Jungle.

The album opens with ‘C:\Projects\CJOST\BEATDEATH’. This has an eerie instrumental with a weird, glitchy voice over the top. The tracks ‘C:\Projects\CJOST\FINDPEACE’ and ‘C:\Projects\CJOST\CLEARMIND’ which are further in the album follow the same theming. These songs serve as a sort of interval, separating the soundtrack into three acts. There is a hidden message across all three, but I’m not going to give that away, put your thinking caps on and find out for yourself. What I will say is there is a nod to a previous Bad Omens’ song, look at the last word of these three track titles.

‘V.A.N’ was released as a single back in January 2024, and the only vocals are from featured artist Poppy. ‘V.A.N’ (Violence Against Nature) follows the story of an artificial intelligence body that destroys humanity. Fun little fact: Poppy’s debut album was titled ‘Poppy.Computer’. The track is high energetic and quite robotic, with the double bass sounding like weaponry throughout. It’s giving very cyberpunk/John Wick/assassin vibes, which is carried into the next song ‘THE DRAIN’ featuring HEALTH and SWARM. Vocalist Jake Duzsik of HEALTH lends his vocals for the verses, with Noah on chorus’. They both have quite different vocal styles, with Jake’s being quite airy, whereas Noah’s are a bit harsher in comparison. HEALTH contributed to the Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack so they’re a good fit for this.

Onto ‘TERMS & CONDITIONS’ which features English rap/rock duo Bob Vylan. I’m not the biggest fan of rap so this one didn’t quite hit for me. I did like the samples of ‘ARTIFICIAL SUICIDE’ from Bad Omen’s previous album ‘THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND’. The next track is a revamp of ‘Hedonist’ from their 2016 debut album. Like the previous, ‘HEDONIST [RECHARGED]’ isn’t for me. Compared to the original, the revamp is a bit more electronic, and has a marching/swaying feel to it, and WARGASM (UK) joining on vocals adds another layer. ‘EVEN’ is a song that I could see during a dream-like state sequence, with a softer and calmer feeling than other Bad Omens’ songs. 

‘LOADING SCREEN’ feels very dream-like too but favours a drum and bass back beat. The instrumental track has 80’s synths that gives very loading screen vibes. Later we have another instrumental; ‘DIGITAL FOOTPRINT’ which sounds like something they’d play in Cyberdog or (from what I’m guessing, I’ve never been) Berghain.

Compared to the tracks we’ve had so far, ‘ANYTHING ᐳ HUMAN’ sounds like it could have easily been on the previous album. ERRA lends their talents for this one, and the vocals from Jesse Cash, JT Cavey and Noah work so well together. ‘NERVOUS SYSTEM’ is quite techno too, and iRis.EXE’s vocals with her repeating “you want to hurt me” in a taunting manner is a little unsettling to the nervous system but in a good way. Then we have not one, but two segues (yes, I’m very happy). ‘Nervous System’ into our second interval, then into the second act.

It’s an interesting move having the majority of the first section of a new album not featuring/primarily not having vocals from the lead vocalist, but I think this helps focus the listener on Bad Omens as one unit rather than Noah Sebastian and then the band. This (and this is strictly hypothetical, don’t be quoting me on this), could be because of the parasocial relationships created over the last year from a huge number of Bad Omens fans. I’m not going to go into details about that, but you should look into it though, it’s wild. 

Now we’ve segued into the second act of the soundtrack which is all remixes of songs from ‘THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND’, and they all sound like they belong on that TrapNation YouTube channel, I was transported back to my happy hardcore days. ‘ARTIFICIAL SUICIDE [UNZIPPED]’ and ‘THE GREY [UNZIPPED]’ both with Thousand Below sound like they could be nearly classed as Nightcore. ‘THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND [WE ARE FURY PATCH]’ with WE ARE FURY adds to the cinematic vibes of this soundtrack, where ‘THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND [SO WYLIE PATCH)’ with So Wylie feels a bit more stripped back, with some nice little offbeat bass sounds (‘donks’ if you want to be technical). ‘BAD DECISIONS [LOFI]’ with dahlia is lovely and calm, 10/10 would relax/study to. In ‘JUST PRETEND [CREDITS]’, the vocals from Jenny Hollingworth of Let’s Eats Grandma and Michael Taylor of Chief work in unison to create a soft overlay over the similar 80’s synth we heard in ‘LOADING SCREEN’.

The third and final act are live tracks. A massive shoutout to Matt Dierkes, tour/production manager and front of house engineer for Bad Omens. If you haven’t been fortunate enough to catch Bad Omens live yet, then this is perfect. The energy they bring when performing extrudes during these tracks, and there’s little added segments you don’t get on the studio versions. This includes (but is not limited to), Noah’s growl in ‘V.A.N [LIVE 2024]’, the audiences ‘woo’ in ‘THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND [LIVE 2024]’, the massive reverse snare bombs, and my personal favourite, the change in melody at the end of ‘JUST PRETEND [LIVE 2024]’.

A last little treat from Bad Omens is the very last thing we’re hear. It doesn’t have an official name but let’s just call it ‘Just Pretend: Volume 2’. An acoustic rendition of ‘Just Pretend’ and some of the lyrics have been changed. Could this have been a previous demo? Who knows, but they need to release it as a single (please).

The level of cinematic effect ‘Concrete Jungle [The OST]’ has is immense. If they wanted to make their comic book into a series or films, they’ve got the music sorted. I could easily see any of the songs of the first two acts in any modern-day organised crime themed show or film. This release has shown the level of production and different styles Bad Omens can produce, both in the studio and live, showcasing that they’re not just a one-trick pony that’ll only stick to one genre. Whether you’re drawn to their emotional honesty or their skilful musicality, Bad Omens continues to solidify their place in the scene. It’s been a hell of a ride for them so far, and they’re only going to continue to grow.