There’s more than a hint of the Killers in Omerta’s soaring vocals, which have an earnest, heartfelt air. Backed up by some towering, echoing guitars in the vein of U2, the whole sound is incredibly tight and thoroughly enjoyable. The emo ethos is at times a touch righteous in a Jimmy Eat World way and sometimes there’s a grandiose feel to the sound, like a slowed-down Muse, but the energy and crispness make up for it.
 | | OtherSide Of Sound |
After Omerta leave, so do about half of the crowd. It’s not hard to see why they have a loyal fan base, and in the same way, it’s easy to see why Other Side of Sound don’t. They should come with a public health warning about excessive noise and a tendency to cause uncontrollable rage. The music’s a tattered patchwork of extremely loud riffs punctuated by tremendously jarring bleeps, discordant jangly noises and wails from tortured instruments. Sharpened fragments of At the Drive In occasionally perforate the eardrum and arch- New York weirdos Liars aren’t too far from the mix, but this sounds more like Chris Morris satirising experimental rock rather than the real deal. This performance inspired a soul-searching bus-stop moment about the nature of music, something you don’t want to be doing at 11pm on a cold, wet Mancunian evening. In essence, OSS make noise. Tony Wilson famously said that Jazz musicians enjoy themselves more than anyone listening to them and this sense of self-indulgent noodlesome bleepery at the expense of any actual audience enjoyment certainly applies to Other Side of Sound. Truth is, I’m happy on this sound of sound – the side you can listen to.
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