Officially Contributed by Michael Watson

From theiowahardcore.blogspot.com

"Omens came together in November of 2010 shortly after Mike and Luke both moved to Des Moines from Cedar Rapids and Pella, respectively. The two had known each other and had been playing shows together in past bands for years and it was only natural that they would talk about playing in a band together now that they were both in the same place. Mike had talked to Aaron separately about starting up a similar sounding band, so he was first choice when it came to filling in the bass player roll. Mike only knew Nick loosely at the time but was hoping to get him to drum for the band based off seeing him drum in bands he was playing in currently and bands he had done in the past, so when Aaron recommended that Nick play drums in the new band it was a total no-brainer.

The members of the band each had a similar mindset when it came to writing music and, after its inception, Omens wasted no time writing songs. Within a few months time and after a few shows, the band had enough material written to be able to record and release a demo. In early 2011, the band headed to Marshalltown, a small town 45 minutes north east of Des Moines, where they had their friend Bo Becker record them in a basement. Six tracks were recorded showing off the bands dire and pounding sound, and the demo was distributed at local shows. In keeping with the stark hopelessness aesthetic of the music, the demo was distributed on white CDrs in black sleeves, a logo stamped onto the disc and a simple black label on the corner of the sleeve.

The demo trudges through a mishmash of slow and fast, wallowing in the sludge and ripping through the nasty punk parts, Mike ripping his throat raw the entire time. Enough flourishing guitar weirdness in the background keeps it interesting, and hints of black metal poke through the darkness at times. After the release of this demo, the band stuck to playing mostly local shows in Des Moines and in the towns surrounding the city. It was around this time that I first saw the band play live at a show my band NERV played with them at All Play in Des Moines in April of 2011. They started their set off with a weirdly somber and eerie intro with sparse drum hits before blasting off with some headbanging riffage over kick ass d-beats. It was mean sounding, not in any fake tough way, but more in the way of plodding despair. It was loud and I loved it."