''Concrete Jungle he OST' is the first compilation album by American heavy metal band
Bad Omens
Bad Omens is an American Heavy metal music, heavy metal band from Richmond, Virginia, formed in 2015 by vocalist and producer Noah Sebastian, guitarist Nicholas Ruffilo, and bassist Vincent Riquier. The band was later joined by guitarist and pr ...
, released on May 31, 2024 through
Sumerian Records
Sumerian Records is an American record label based in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and London. The label was founded in 2006 by Ash Avildsen.The Death of Peace of Mind''. It also serves as the companion soundtrack to the graphic novel "Bad Omens – Concrete Jungle, Volume 1".
Release
Following the success of the band's previous album Bad Omens was consistently booked on tours, shows, and festivals following the end of COVID–19 shutdowns. The sleeper success of " Just Pretend" after going viral on
TikTok
TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...
only further cemented the band's success.
June 2023 saw the announcement of the "Concrete Jungle" comic book series, chronicling the fictional Bad Omens crime syndicate, by
Sumerian Records
Sumerian Records is an American record label based in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and London. The label was founded in 2006 by Ash Avildsen.V.A.N", the first single to be released from the album, was released on January 24, 2024, featuring
Poppy
A poppy is a flowering plant in the subfamily Papaveroideae of the family Papaveraceae. Poppies are herbaceous plants, often grown for their colourful flowers. One species of poppy, '' Papaver somniferum'', is the source of the narcotic drug ...
, with whom they were currently touring. Rumors of a fourth Bad Omens album, often named ''Concrete Forever'' on the basis of the tour name, began to circulate.
The album was officially announced on April 17, alongside a release date set for May 31. The announcement coincided with the release of two new singles: "The Drain" featuring
Health
Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...
and Swarm, and a remix of " The Death of Peace of Mind" by So Wylie. A fourth single, "Anything > Human" featuring Erra, was distributed the day before the album's release.
Critical reception
The album received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the breadth of styles explored within the record, with some complaining that some songs strayed too far from the band's core sound. Isabella Ambrosio of ''Kerrang!'' wrote that "Often straddling the pitch-black line of dark electropop and metalcore, each collaboration has its own identity without ever overlapping." Of the first disc of the album, Jasmin Choy of ''Hive Magazine'' observed "It’s an interesting move having the majority of the first section of a new album not featuring/primarily not having vocals from the lead vocalist, but I think this helps focus the listener on Bad Omens as one unit rather than Noah Sebastian and then the band. This ..could be because of the parasocial relationships created over the last year from a huge number of Bad Omens fans." This refers to Noah Sebastian having deleted all of his social media accounts in late 2023 in response to heightened attention and unwanted outreach from Bad Omens fans. ''
Metal Hammer
''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions published by different companies available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' featu ...
'' rated the album four stars and described it as "a synthetic neon-noir spectacle."
Track listing
All tracks are written and produced by Noah Sebastian and Joakim Karlsson, except where noted. All tracks are stylized in
upper case
Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (more formally ''#Majuscule, majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (more formally ''#Minuscule, minuscule'') in the written representation of certain langua ...
.
Personnel
Credits adapted from the album's Tidal page.
Bad Omens
* Noah Sebastian – vocals, programming, production
* Joakim Karlsson – guitar, programming, production
* Nicholas Ruffilo – bass
* Nick Folio – drums
Personnel
* Zakk Cervini – mastering engineer
* Matt Dierkes – mixing engineer
* Julian Gargiulo – additional engineering and mixing
* Alex Prieto – editing on tracks 5, 8, 10
* Chaz Sexton – assistant recording engineer on tracks 5, 8, 10