Reviews: The Ocean, Mystic Prophecy, Tankzilla, Voul (Reviews By Mark Young, Matt Bladen, Rich Piva & GC)

The Ocean - Holocene (Pelagic Records) [Mark Young]

Right, new band for Mr. Young. The Ocean (Collective) have been around for a while, and I’ve never got round to listening to them. Until tonight.

Preboreal is a song that just builds and builds, starting from single stabs to guitar lines and drums taking its time to expand. As an introduction to The Ocean this is a good start with electronic and more traditional weapons of musical destruction in place. The rousing finish sets the rest of the album to come in and show me what they have.

And it does.

Boreal comes in softly, almost creeping up with isolated guitar, echoing background keys that barely register and like Preboreal they provide another masterclass in filling the space in sound so gradually that you go from nothing to almost being overwhelmed. The brass, keys all sitting together just to get shifted by a dirty, low guitar that is being stabbed, in a slow but effective phrase. This builds with a middle eastern sound, vocals/drums/keys everything in synch. Then as soon as it comes it finishes. Excellent.

Sea Of Reeds adopts the same approach with brass swells against a whispered vocal line that expands to bring in a beautiful guitar line that just hangs. This is a thing of beauty and smacks of a creative process that recognises that they exist out of conventional labels or genres. I have no idea of how to exactly describe it (which I think is a wonderful thing) apart from the fact it is just stunning.

There is a change in Atlantic, it is not immediate but more of a feeling as it unfolds with backing music cutting in and out all the while the vocals continue on a desolate trail. Until it really starts as they power through with a storming guitar part that they snatch back from you. The music engages and keeps you trying to guess what they will do next. The constant is the vocals, ever present Löic Rossetti anchoring the structure as different textures come and go. And then they drop THAT riff, and we are off. Its dirty, heavy and just squats over everything else presented in this song to just alter the composition and attack. *Chef’s Kiss*, it’s just that good.

Subboreal uses an electronic approach that is front and centre that evokes classic NIN, but this has that perpetual motion that NIN have not had for a while (yes, yes) and then drop another a-bomb riff, that twists and turns like a restrained animal. This is a top example of a band understanding the value and importance of balance to deliver something unique. This is frankly brilliant stuff as it navigates its way from clean to screamed vocals with frantic riffed out run to the finish line.

Uncomformities weighs in at 9minutes long and they are joined by a guest vocalist with that heavy influence of 90s electronica leaning in, joined with the brass and is fantastic. I can’t find any information on who it is, but they were incredible here. They change things up a gear to really batter you with repeated screamed vocals that come from both sides with full on attack that could have come from a different song all together. Ever present is the sense of melody, of composition, of just making the best music they can make. Always there is the electronica, rising / falling as we reach the end.

Except there isn’t one as it leads into Parabiosis, electronica now central to the early stages falling to one side as we gather speed but not in the traditional way. There are subtle little things taking place that make the song seem faster than it is, similar to a dance which has those moments of ebb and rise when another king-size riff comes in and starts to push tall buildings over. Fighting against it is the brass, equally laying down some low end.

And so, we come to the end with Subatlantic. That brass once more acting like whale song, I’m not sure but they bring us once of the most effective guitar melody lines before the heavy is dropped. The use of a secondary voice just fills so much space but doesn’t feel as though it was tacked on. Everything fits, and this is a fitting album closer.

This is some endeavour, as they hit you with track after track that is familiar to the one before its without being any sort of rehash of ideas. It’s just one of those albums that you will hear once, and it will become an instant favourite. I confessed earlier I hadn’t heard their music before. If you are in the same boat don’t make the same mistake as I have so jump straight in and listen to this because it is a wonderful, wonderful album. 8/10

Mystic Prophecy - Hellriot (ROAR! Rock Of Angels Records) [Matt Bladen]

Noted German heavy/power metal band Mystic Prophecy bring us a Hellriot with their 12th studio album following Metal Division in 2020. They promise more Teutonic power metal riffs and those gruff vocals of R.D Liapakis and with the fast paced title track and the stomping Unholy Hell they deliver what is promised from the first two songs. Continuing what they did on the last album and have been doing for most of their career, Mystic Prophecy are masters of twin riff harmonies, big solos and fat choruses, most of which here deal with hell, fire or demons, with the exception of Road To Babylon.

It puts them more toward the classic metal vein than power metal Markus Pohl and Evan K's riffs a bit dirtier than many of the power metal bands around, taking from the blues base and ramping up the noise, for example on a track like Metal Attack. The whiskey soaked vocals of Liapakis is also based in the blues as Joey Roxx's bass and Hanno Kerstan's drums guide the grooving Paranoia as do some synths.

Mystic Prophecy make heavy metal to be played live and all of these songs could be included in their set and shouted along to, even the slower numbers will have you humming along as you listen. Catchy, classy, experienced heavy metal from Mystic Prophecy, it's exactly what you expect. 7/10

Tankzilla - Tankzilla (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Rich Piva]

The Dutch duo Tankzilla have been jamming together for a while now, coming out of other bands and with three demos under their belt, are now ready to unleash their stoner rock swamp boogie with a touch of the blues on the masses with their self-titled debut record courtesy of Heavy Psych Sounds. These guys make a ton of sound for a duo, and that sound is nothing but killer heavy rock and roll fun.

Lucifer starts us off, and you get the stoner side of the band right off the bat, but there is not to these two Dutch rockers. You get riffs, but this is oddly danceable in the best way possible. These guys want you to shake your ass and stomp your feet along to their brand of rock, and I challenge you to try not to. The drum work is killer and keeps up with the driving guitar throughout all the record. You get a bit more of that bluesy boogie with Crossroads (go figure), with some White Stripes vibes (too easy? Maybe…). 

Some other killer highlights include Soulsurfer that offers some excellent riffs, Down Below that also brings riffs and is one of the more straight-ahead stoner tracks on the record, and Wolfpack, which is the most ass kicking track and must be the live highlight of the band’s probably very sweaty set, oh and cowbell). I can see this one being their band’s theme song. Pluck The Rooster is another standout track, as you can see these guys can be bluesy and catchy too. The highlight to me is Brother From Another Mother, which was one of the original demos they put out, here in its complete form, and is a stoner blues classic.

All in all, Tankzilla’s debut is great rock and roll fun, blending several cool elements that make these eleven tracks in forty-four minutes fly by. There is something overtly familiar about this record, in a very positive way, in that it incorporates a lot of very cool stuff but with a spin that is unique to these two dudes. Very cool stuff, be ready for a heavy rock kick ass party. 8/10

Voul - Concrete Cult (Abstract Emotions) [GC]

Its back to Spain again for my second review this week but today it’s an altogether different proposition musically because I have the new album from sludge 3-piece Voul, their influences stretch from Bad Brains and Black Flag right through to Eyehategod and Iron Monkey which has me interested but, I may have mentioned my non-existent attention span in previous reviews and with most songs here registering at 6 minutes plus, I won’t lie, I head into this review slightly worried!!

Screeching into life on a wave of feedback and noise The Abyss Awaits then introduces us to a bass line so filthy a pig would probably turn its nose up at it, its low and fuzzy and drags the song crawling along with the equally fuzzed up and low end guitars and the drums are just as rough and it all creates a sound that just grabs hold of you and wont let go, it surrounds you and climbs over you but never lets you out of its grasp until about 4 minutes in when it all just kind of stops and twiddles about a bit and loses all the urgency it had but, thankfully the end does bring it back and finishes nastily before fading out on the same feedback/noise style from when its started.

Pain Brigade is a heavily bass line lead song with minimalist drums that begins to build up and when the guitars crash in the riff is a thing of doomy beauty this is the Iron Monkey influence starting to take hold in a wonderfully disgusting way, all the way through the riff is repeated and instead of becoming tedious it just seems to get heavier as it goes and the backline do an absolute class job of keeping everything grooving along at a slow and steady but heavy as hell pace and they use the bring the riff back but not slower, but heavier and then slow it down to phenomenal effect towards the end. 

My Ruin cascades into your conscience with more breeze block solid guitars with the main riff here being another beast that you just can’t help but nod along to and the huge rumbling bass lines make the earth beneath you quake and the drums just smash and destroy in a subtle but devastating way for the entire length of this song its slow and pummelling but also relentless in its attack.

Infernal Factory has an ominous and echoey opening that creates a sense of unease and dread before dropping another monstrous riff into the mixing pot and this drops in and out of the slow/quiet dynamic and creates another layer of heavy and that’s even before there are any vocals which don’t kick in until almost 4 minutes in and when they do yet more layers of filth are added and its all just wonderfully grim and bleak in the best possible way! 

The Regulator is a bit of a swing and a miss to be honest, its their attempt to showcase their hardcore influences but against the rest of what has been on this album so far it it’s just completely out of place and upsets the whole flow of the album, not really a wise choice and this 1 minute 40 seconds could probably just have been included into an actual song instead of being a stand alone track, frustrating. 

Lime Wall is the last and longest track on the album and at 8 minutes 43 seconds it does a good job of getting everything back on track and mixes some cleanish vocals into the sound, which are ok but glad they weren’t on the majority of the songs as the harsh vocals are miles better, the song itself is a lumbering and thunderous racket, its just a huge wall of fuzz and sludge noise but, and here’s the attention span kicking in, it’s probably at least 2 minutes too long and kind of just drags on and on and on and on until its finally over.

I came into this review worried; I needn’t have been to be honest as the vast majority of Concrete Cult is very good and ironically the worst song on it was the shortest one. The whole thing is dirty, scuzzy and downright filthy sounding and that’s what I want from this sort of album music so disgusting it makes me feel like I need a shower! This for the most part produced exactly that. 8/10