Articles

Bad Omens: Quickly Becoming One Of The Biggest Metalcore Bands

The Metalverse

Apr 25, 2023 — 3 min read

The Story of Bad Omens - Cover

What Genre is Bad Omens?

Bad Omens is a modern Metalcore band from Richmond, Virginia, that has a special focus on creating incredibly strong hooks and emotional choruses. The band prioritizes melody and songwriting but also blends in experimental elements, as well as screaming and metal. Sometimes fans draw comparisons to Bring Me The Horizon, especially with the lead vocalists earlier screaming style. Bad Omens creates an expert blend of pop elements, anthemic choruses, and extreme metal influences.

Bad Omens Members

Bad Omens began as a 3-piece act with frontman Noah Sebastian, bassist Vincent Riquier, and guitarist Nicholas Ruffilo.

Ruffilo introduced Sebastian to his friend from Sweden, Joakim Karlsson, who soon joined the lineup and became their lead guitarist. The band put out a demo track in search of a drummer and Nick Folio submitted an online drum cover that caught the attention of Bad Omens and lead to him joining the band.

After recording, Bad Omens released a demo EP of what would soon become their self-titled debut album. The demo EP actually managed to make a big enough wave that the national record label, Sumerian Records, was interested and told the band to record the tracks on a full-length album.

The Rise of Bad Omens

By the end of 2015, Bad Omens landed a record deal with Sumerian Records and released their first non-demo track "Glass Houses" with the record label.

In 2016 Bad Omens released their single, "The Worst in Me" which was their first breakout song, with 1 million streams in close to a month.

After the release of their self-titled album, Bad Omens began to tour with major national bands like Asking Alexandria which helped them gather and grow their fanbase, ultimately helping them promote their newly released album.

The Band toured heavily in the following years and with the help of Sumerian continued to popularize their music. After finishing up a tour with Parkway Drive, they doubled down on finishing their 2nd full-length album before releasing, "Finding God Before God Finds Me" in 2019.

Creative Process

In 2020 Bad Omens was touring when Covid hit, canceling the rest of their shows. In an interview, Noah Sebastian talks about how he began to work on their album, "The Death Of Peace Of Mind" (to be released in 2022) immediately after returning from tour. He says that he challenged himself to produce a song without using typical instruments by sampling objects from around his house. Noah used a vacuum cleaner as a bass and made keyboard sounds from decorations, eventually creating a whole demo song that would later become "The Death Of Peace Of Mind" once the instruments were swapped out.

Noah likes to use unique samples and loops and then build the song around them. With the creation of their next album, Bad Omens would really refine their sound and use a unique writing process.

Blowing Up

In 2021 and early 2022, Bad Omens released singles such as, "The Death Of Peace Of Mind", "Like A Villain" and "Just Pretend", which moved the band's sound to a whole new level, with the catchiest hooks they've ever produced.

With the release of "Just Pretend" not only were their songs blowing up on streaming platforms but "Just Pretend" went viral on TikTok, with over 77,000 videos posted using that song alone. Along with all of their success already, the new trends on TikTok using their music helped Bad Omens skyrocket into the mainstream eye, helping them grow into becoming one of the most popular current metalcore bands.

With the release of their full-length album "The Death Of Peace Of Mind" Bad Omens lived up to the hype they had created and blew previous albums out of the water. The band has nowhere to go but up, and fans are excitedly awaiting what comes next from the band.