Kerrang! 5/5 (OG was also featured on Kerrang`s feature Top 21 bands you MUST hear)
Rock Hard! 9,5/10 "The best extreme dark metal record since ‚"Storm Before Calm" from Primordial. This is the soon to be most important band of Finland. This reminds of the best moments of At The Gates and Necrophobic."
Metal Hammer 8/10 "Hammer recommendents" (OG was featured also on Metal Hammer feature "New Wave Of European Heavy Metal, New and Improved with Opeth, Haunted, In Flames, Soilwork and Red Harvest)
"Say what? That`ll be the new wave of European heavy metal then won`t it? And below you`ll find a list of its leading lights heading your way this year with sharpened flying V`s and amplifiers stacks set on kill mode!"
Metal Hammer Germany 6/7 ""Spirits And August Light" is a perfect album from the first tune to the last. Each song is a must listen!"
Metal Heart (germany) 9/10
Metal Message 10/10 "Spirits And August Light" is another masterpiece of technical skilled and melodic State Of The Art-Black Metal!
Terrorizer Magazine 8/10
Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles (BW&BK) 8/10 "Instead of focusing on all these other Finnish melodic death/black/Children Of Bodom wannabee bands, here is a band who know how to properly deliver an astounding array of deadly melodies, sheer atmospherics, and portray an aggression that 99 percent of all these other Finnish bands lack."
Metal Rules.com 4.5/5
Monster (Sweden) 4/5
Heavy Oder Was? 9/11
Metal Reviews.com 93/100 "Album of the Month"
Scream Magazine 5/6
Ancient Spirit 9,5/12
Bright Eyes 10/13
Metal Observer 8,5/10 "a new Finnish Melodic Death Metal sensation"
Uncle Sally`s Metal album of The Month "The best metal debut in 2003!!"
Walls Of Fire 8,5/10 "The melodic death newcomer of 2003!!"
Tiefgang Musicmagazine 8,5/10
Sellfish "The Death Metal Highlight in 2003. A must in every CD-Collection!"
Suomimetalli 9/10 "Omnium Gatherum on tehnyt niin ammattitaitoisen ja iskevän levyn, että sitä on todella vaikea uskoa bändin debyyttialbumiksi."
Inferno Magazine 8/10 "Loistava debyytti!!"
SuomiFinlandPerkele 8/10
Imperiumi 8/10
RevelationZ 8,5/10 "The music is awesome, OG will no doubt garner top recognition from the release of this album in the Death metal scene."
Transcending the Mundane 8,5/10
Full Strength (Ultimate Metal Australia) 4/5 "Lots of positive noise in the underground about this band! And rightly so I say."
Primal Agony Webzine 4/5
Krepuskulum zine 4/5 "OMNIUM GATHERUM is one of the great promises coming from the new european melodic death metal and this is a good album, an excellent beginning for a career that will still surprise everybody."
Metalbite.com 8,8/10 "Possibly the most interesting melodic death metal album of the year."
Royal Carnage 9/10
Urkraft 8,5/10 "I´ll narrow my point of view and place the band among my candidates for the title "best newcomer of 2003"."
Starvox zine "Pick of the month! Instant classic, an album that metal fans should not ignore. Nothing is missing in this tour-de-force of high octane metal."
Silent Stagnation 5.3/6
Metalreview.com 5/6 "Omnium Gatherum have released a winner of an album that manages to breath life into the melodic death genre."
Deadtide.com "It seems as if Omnium Gatherum has made every right choice possible in the creation of Spirits and August Light."
MetalJudgment 4.67/5 "I can't really praise this album enough, one word review:IMPORTANT"
Ars Metallia 4/5
Digital Metal "Don't read this review. Seriously, don't, just either go to your favorite e-store or get up from that chair and go get this album!"
Into Obscurity "Omnium Gatherum take things to the next level. They're really a step above most other melodic metal acts."
Hamara 3/5 "Omnium Gatherum tulee olemaan tulevaisuudessa vähän helevetin kova luu."
Metal Heart Sweden 8/10
Tombstone 8/10
Lords Of Metal 95/100
Rocksound UK 8/10
Unrestrained! Magazine 9/10
Chronicles Of Chaos 8/10
HmPortal.it 78/100
MTVHell 9/10
MonstersWorldOfMetal 7.75/10
Swedish Metal 9/10
Descending Darkness `zine 9,5/10 "Spirits and August Light is what the best album of 2003 sounds like"
Metallian (france) 5/6

KERRANG!
5/5
Finnish metal debutants crush the opposition with monstrous debut! Last year`s "Steal the Light" mini-album hinted that Omnium Gatherum had the potential to turn into something very exciting indeed, and their first full-length album sees all that promise come to glorious fruition. Nine tracks of stupendously OTT melodic death metal, "Spirits…" is easily the best album of its kind to emerge in years. These fresh-faced Finns have mastered a dizzying array of metallic styles and have blended them with supreme skills. An immaculate but abrasive production has instilled these superbly crafted songs with a healthy measure of melancholy menace, and the musicianship on display is breathtaking. From blistering opener "Writhen" to the downbeat pounding on "It Shines", every last second of this album resonates with power, intelligence and class. An absolute gem! (Dom Lawson)

UNRESTRAINED!
9/10
Finland has provided a lot of exciting bands in the past, Amorphis and Children Of Bodom most prominent among them. Omnium Gatherum`s lush and expansive melodic death sound is most comparable to the aforementioned bands. This defines what epic melodic death is all about. Countless bands try this formula but come up short. With Omnium Gatherum, it`s all about a flowing energy that draws you right into the multitude of of athmospheric imagery that this album creates. With this being their debut full-length, and having made somewhat of a name through their EP "Steal the Light", I can honestly say that this band is going places. Another great feature that you notice upon first listen is how the keyboards don`t overpower the senses, yet they complement the other instruments and create a warm and inviting sound. Vocalist Antti Filppu gives the band the hard edge with his expressive death growls, and the guitars work together beautifully to create hard riffs and beautiful melodies. I`m in love with this album, and I don`t see why fans of this genre shouldn`t be. (L.Savage)

ROCKSOUND UK
8/10
Finland`s Omnium Gatherum`s debut album for London`s cool underground label Rage Of Achilles is a mightily impressive melodic death metal overture that easily stands above the shoulders of so many of their European counterparts on bigger labels and with high profiles. Crammed with prog-based technical brilliance, scorching and humongous epic guitar solos and riffs, gravelly vocals inspired by the likes of Carcass` Jeff Walker and overall some splendid, glorious headbanging moments. Bands like these once again show that metal doesn`t have to be cheesy, out-dated and German, it can in fact be entertaining, blistering and damn right cool! Apparently they`ve got some dates lined-up with the mighty Children Of Bodom, and on the strength of this release there is no reason why OG couldn`t take off in the same ways as bands like Arch Enemy et al. (James Dominic)

CHRONICLES OF CHAOS
8/10 When you have released a damn good debut EP and are about to record your first full-length, what should you do? Concentrate on writing enough new material for the album, or write just over half an hour of new music and re-record a couple of nifty tracks from the EP? I find it penalizing for both the fans who had purchased the original EP and the sales of said debut disc (which might have otherwise been boosted by people enjoying the full-length and going back to buy the EP as well). Either way, Omnium Gatherum (or their label) have decided to capitalize on a couple of very good tracks from the highly commendable _Steal the Light_ EP -- though I wonder why they left out "Candles for Giordano Bruno" while they were at it. The new Omnium Gatherum material is somewhat punchier, though it remains firmly rooted in melodic death metal. The Finns employ some relatively subtle synth higlights and remain catchy as ever, though not by using repetitive clean vocal choruses a la Soilwork. The fact that the new material all but ends after track six (which is followed by the two re-recordings and one last track that seems to have been mixed at a slightly lower volume) subtracts from the album's value for the money if you already have the EP. However, it remains very difficult to deny the appeal of OG's highly energetic, memorable and invigorating metal. A proper full-length where they can consistently reproduce the best of the form they've shown so far should be awaited with bated breath. by: Pedro Azevedo

SWEDISHMETAL 9/10
Finland has produced a lot of excellent acts throughout the years and they still keep on delivering. I must say that this CD is one of the best I´ve heard in a long time, the music is just stunning, packed with melodies, tecnicallitys and awesome leads. They sometimes reminds me of Soilwork but then they go a complete different way and I like it. The flawless tracklist is impressive, from the deadly opener "Writhen", through the beautiful "The Perfumed Garden" to the final track "It Shines". The production is surprisingly clear but also powerful. giving the songs that extra push towards perfection. Still, every coin has two sides and the only thing I dislike with this masterpiece is the vocals. They are to monotone and I feel that the vocalist have to work alot on the arrangements for their next album, he has improved alot since their EP but there´s alot of work to be done in that area. 9 of 10 Mikael - June 2003