Veteran heavy metal bands sometimes struggle to stay relevant. With their live audiences generally not wanting to hear any new material, there doesn’t seem to be much of an incentive to come up with a good album. That didn’t stop Omen, however. Every album they released in the last fifteen years is a solid old school heavy metal album with a modern bite in the riff work and the production. That modern edge is more prominent than ever on ‘Kell az Ima’, at times having slight Nevermore leanings, and it suits their current line-up, singer Péter Molnár in particular.

Omen originally spun off from Hungarian heavy metal pioneers Pokolgép, with guitarist László Nagyfi and original singer Jószef Kalapács taking the more straightforward, meat-and-potatoes stuff with them while Pokolgép was going down more melodic avenues. And while ‘Kell az Ima’ sounds notably more modern than Omen’s early work, their songwriting philosophy hasn’t changed much. The excellent opening track ‘Kellenek az Imák’ is the only song exceeding the four-minute mark – and only just – and the riffs have a powerful, workmanlike quality to them. This is really how every band influenced by Judas Priest and Accept should sound these days.

Where Omen excels over many other artists playing a similar style is in the band’s degree of variation. It’s easy to get stuck in the same mid-tempo groove, playing in whatever key corresponds with the lowest open string, but no one will mistake two songs off ‘Kell az Ima’ for each other. Omen made sure that every song on the album has its own identity. And so, you can move from the almost Black Label Society-esque vibe of ‘Lennék’ to the pulsating, tom-heavy feel of ‘Méregpohár’ or the stomping ‘Görbül a Tér’ without the songs feeling samey, despite being in a similar realm tempo-wise.

Consistency is the greatest strength of ‘Kell az Ima’. Despite that, there are some highlights for me. ‘Kikövezett Út’ just works, with its beefy Sabbath-inspired riffs contrasting nicely with the melodic depth of its chorus and solo section. I love how the low clean guitars on ‘Kellenek az Imák’ create a somewhat ominous atmosphere that works really well, and there is a great guitar solo to top it off. Closing track ‘Látszatkirályság’ is easily my favorite, though, because it’s the most dynamic song here. There are some excellent guitar harmonies, an awesome chord progression in the chorus and some simple, yet brutally effective riffs.

‘Kell az Ima’ is pretty much exactly as good as it should be. I don’t love how there are two consecutive semi-ballads, though admittedly, ‘Árnyékból Fény’ is actually one of the better songs on the album, and the previous album ‘Halálfogytiglan’ is a bit more varied in the tempo department, but as far as traditional heavy metal songwriting in the twenty-first century goes, Omen hit the nail on the head here. The best thing about it is simply how unpretentious it sounds. That just shows how far you can go with a bunch of good riffs and a convincing singer.

Recommended tracks: ‘Látszatkirályság’, ‘Kellenek az Imák’, ‘Kikövezett Út’