Only the open-minded people can survive

“There’s a secret, ancient writing stem from an unknown alien civilization—a contract between humans and aliens about the use of the planet Earth. The government calls it the “Omega Diatribe.”

This contract says that humans can only use the Earth for a limited time. When our time is over, the aliens will come back and take us to a higher level planet. Only the open-minded people can survive the transmission, because their minds can undergo the changes of the human body.”

What are we talking here? Are we going through a Science Fiction movie? Is it a Star Wars Trilogy? Hell No! We’re talking about the Hungarian Groove Metal band Omega Diatribe! The following is the interview with the lead guitarist of the band, Gergő Hájer.

Your debut full length album IAPETUS was a huge success in Hungary. How do you feel about it?

It just surprised us a bit. We just wanted to record a really heavy album and when it was released, everybody was shocked here in Hungary. We were nominated for “The best debut album of 2013” with IAPETUS, and we landed in second place, so it was such an honor for us.

How do you feel about the new album Abstract Ritual? Was it bigger than IAPETUS?

Abstract Ritual just put the band to a higher level. It’s clear, groovy and pure Omega Diatribe. We got our ‘real style’ with this record. The drumming was performed by the legendary American Death Metal drummer Kevin Talley (Suffocation/ex-Six Feet Under/Chimaira/Misery Index), and it was really a big honor for us. Kevin is a great guy and a killer drummer too. We suffered a bit due to the fact that our original drummer, David, left because he couldn’t dedicate enough time to the band, so it was the perfect decision to hire Kevin for the album. We signed to the American label Independent Ear Records with this album, so it’s definitely opened up some new options for the band.

What is the magic of success within a short span of time?

Hard work. We work hard every day on the band’s stuff. We don’t have a manager or anything like that, so everything that we have accomplished is self-powered. We just do what we like, try to focus on the music 100%, and give a powerful live performance. Live shows are pretty great—most of the people who don’t like our music when recorded, they feel the natural power in our live shows.

How did you come up with the band name Omega Diatribe?

The basic idea came from the ‘Star Trek’ series, but we didn’t want to use such an unambiguous term, so we changed one word in it. Unfortunately, it was just words that had a good sound, but with no real meaning. So one crazy night, my band mate, Ákos Szathmáry (bass), came up with a story that made it significant. Ever since, Omega Diatribe is: ”There’s a secret, ancient writing stem from an unknown alien civilization—a contract between humans and aliens about the use of the planet Earth. The government calls it the “Omega Diatribe.” This contract says that humans can only use the Earth for a limited time. When our time is over, the aliens will come back and take us to a higher level planet. Only the open-minded people can survive the transmission, because their minds can undergo the changes of the human body.”

You recently hired a new drummer Tommy Kiss. Why the sudden change?

Yes, we have a brand new drummer Tommy Kiss. When we worked with Kevin Talley, it was because we couldn’t find a brutal drummer here in Hungary after David left the band. Kevin was just an option for studio recording. He can’t fly over here in play shows with us, so we knew that we would have to find a full-time band member. We already know Tommy from another band, but when I wrote to him saying that we needed a drummer, he just couldn’t say no. We managed a rehearsal with him and he totally nailed the tunes. He is just perfect for us both technically and in attitude.

What’s the Inspiration for starting the band. How did you guys get together?

We started to play music with our bass player Ákos in 2008. The main idea is that we want to make the really dark, heavy, low-tuned metal music that was needed in the Hungarian metal scene. To find the right people for the band was really hard. We want to play with high-skilled musicians, but we also want to find guys with the right mentality too. It’s never easy haha… but we became a real band with 5 members in 2011, and this was when we came up with the band’s name: Omega Diatribe. By the way all of us had previous bands: I played in SyCo I from 2004 to 2008 and Ákos played in Blindfold from 2003 to 2008.

Any plans of having an international tour in support of Abstract Ritual?

Yes! Our biggest dream is to take our music as far as we can, so we’re really trying to focus on international tours, but it’s quite hard you know. We’re not enough big to make a European tour, but we figured out a way to make it possible. Maybe our American label will help us in this way. We would like to burn our band name to the international Metalheads’ mind and try to get some worldwide promotion. This is our main mission right now.

What’s the plan for 2016? Are you working on a new album?

We’re working on the new album, but it’s hard because we mostly play every weekend here in Hungary. The instrumental work for four songs are mostly complete. We would like to do bigger and bigger shows in 2016, and try to organize shows in other countries because we get so many messages that non-Hungarian people are hungry for our music too! We aim to release the new album in early 2017, but I can’t promise it. It really depends on the number of the shows.

What would your message be, from Omega Diatribe to fans all over the world?

We thank every single one of our fans for their support, it means a lot to us. Feel free to drop us a message in Facebook or anywhere, ‘cuz we’re a fan-centric band. We would like to know everybody! Keep trusting in us as a band, because it means everything to us right now. We won’t make any fans disappointed and we’ll stay true all the time. Keep free and stay heavy!