At The Plates – Omnivore – Album Review

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Our first review of 2024 is an intriguing one. The promo states that At The Plates was founded by Tony Rouse in 2018 with one goal in mind: to combine his love of good food with his love of great death metal. And hey, we thought, we love good food and we fuckin’ love great death metal….surely we’d be stupid not to tuck in!

A decision which proved to have mixed results. Given that At The Plates blend Gothenburg melodeath (unsurprising given their humorous moniker) with Floridian death metal aggression (and a little old-school grind thrown on for good measure), Omnivore is a tasty little morsel on paper….but can be rather unsavoury in the flesh (no pun intended).

There’s no doubt that these are talented guys and with themes regarding food addiction, where your food actually comes from and good health in general, we doff our cap to both the concept and the timing (anyone else still eating turkey sandwiches and wishing they weren’t such a fat cunt?! Just us? Shit.).

There’s a great sense of humour running throughout too – with highlight “Incanted Syrup Abuse” leaning hard into Carcass-isms (obvs) – but At The Plates mish-mash (potato probably) of heavier grind and more accessible melodeath often grates (cheese probably) as we can’t help but wish they’d settle the fuck down and pick a lane.

Neither a Michellin starred meal nor a greasy breakfast from your local cafe, At The Plates‘ Omnivore sits somewhere in between and is worth taking bites out of….even if you can’t stomach the whole thing! 6/10

 At The Plates‘ Omnivore was released independently on January 5th 2024.