Dive into the oddball antics of Ocean Grove's fifth album, ODDWORLD
Well before Y2K resurged to infiltrate the fashion and music industry, Ocean Grove was already reshaping the sound of modern day metal.
Not only did the Melbourne-based outfit manage to revive a genre that, to many, died when emo took over in the early 2000’s, they ultimately reinvented the entire metal world, influencing bands like Thornhill, Alpha Wolf and Dregg (to name a few) to adopt similar nü metal stylings that embrace the weirdness of the group’s self-invented genre “oddworld”.
Ocean Grove – ODDWORLD
- Label: ODDWORLD Records/SharpTone Records
- Release Date: 22 Nov
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But to be honest, after the group’s lead vocalist Luke Holmes left in 2019, so did the spark that the group had on their debut, The Rhapsody Tapes. Undoubtedly, you can’t help but tip your hat to the determination of the group showed amidst lineup changes, but, in my eyes, both post-Holmes follow ups, Flip Phone Fantasy, and, Up In the Air Forever, didn’t quite capture the same unruly spontaneity and genre-bending “oddworld” spirit that ruled The Rhapsody Tapes.
So when it was announced that both Holmes and longtime collaborator Running Touch were back in the studio for album number four, ODDWORLD, I couldn’t contain my excitement–even if there were minor trepidations. Would it live up to the group’s first effort, or had the band’s sound evolved too much to rechannel the same energy they managed to capture in 2018?
Thankfully, it hits the incredibly high standard that I’d built up in my head. From the opening minutes of bass-heavy intro, ‘OG Forever’, it feels like we’ve stepped back into the past – the boys are back, and they’re sounding weirder than ever.
‘Cell Division’ hits hard with Holmes’ unique take on rap perfectly blended alongside gritty riffs, industrial basslines and grunge choruses. ‘STUNNER’ takes the realms of “oddworld” further than ever before, contrasting acoustic and electric guitars, microtonal riffwork and jungle drum grooves to deliver a mix between Steal This Album! era System of A Down and N.E.R.D’s ‘She Wants To Move.’ As does ‘OTP’, with the inclusion of guest vocal spots from New Babylon and Adult Art Club helping to elevate the group’s sound from rap-inspired to straight up rap-rock, while tracks like ‘NO OFFENCE DETECTED’, on the other hand, reintroduce the genre-bending trance/UKG interludes that helped make The Rhapsody Tapes so unique.
Not to undermine the hardwork Dale, Twiggy and Sam have put into maintaining the Ocean Grove brand over the last few years, but ODDWORLD feels like the sophomore album we were all expecting four years ago. Picking up exactly where The Rhapsody Tapes left off, ODDWORLD redefines the scope of the group’s self-made, all-encompassing genre.
It’s weird as hell, just the way we like it.
Get ready to listen to Ocean Grove’s ODDWORLD when it drops Friday 22 November here.
