Now that {$the Bad Brains}' earliest demos, circa 1979, have been dutifully documented on the {^Black Dots} collection, this EP bridges that rougher, rawer, still-developing period with the furious, ungodly might, thrust, attack, and onslaught of their 1980-1983 period, the hottest {\hardcore} ever. What's found here is the pioneering band's first excursion into a proper 24-track studio. The sound quality is much clearer than the real document of the truly "bad" -- as in super-rad -- {$Bad Brains}, the following year's 1981 {^ROIR Sessions} cassette LP on the {@ROIR} label. (A must-have album later reissued on CD, {^ROIR} still boggles the brain in terms of speed, intensity, masterful playing, and tight precision. Get it. Now.) At only five songs, {^Omega Sessions} is far too short to replace {^ROIR Sessions} as the essential dynamite, and furthermore, {^ROIR} is harder, tighter, meaner, and way more explosive. Compare the {^Omega} and {^ROIR} versions of {&"Attitude"} and it's clear that as hot as the band was in 1980, one year later they were a total knockout. Like {%Ali}, {%Ruth}, {%Jordan}, and {%Gretzky} in their primes, these four young blacks were a fireball night after night, one that stunned and amazed all who came across their unmatched, primal fury-like genius. However, for the sound quality and the definitive versions of two later favorites (both of which are perhaps twice as good here, in their original forms), the more breakneck {\punk}, less {\hard rock} {&"I Against I"} and a {$Ric Ocasek}-freed {&"At the Movies,"} plus a tougher {&"Stay Close to Me"} (for those who recall the politer version on the 1980 debut {&"Pay to Cum"} 7" B-side), {^Omega} is still a handsome addition to the {$Bad Brains} canon, a historical piece of the foursome that founded thrash and blew away all their marginal imitators. Turn this sucker up when you play it, loud (!), and then tape it for anyone who's never heard {\hardcore} as only these four people could play it. ~ Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover, All Music Guide