Seattle’s Old Iron is a great example of the variation that’s found its way into every shade of contemporary metal. On their newest album Lupus Metallorum they incorporate the plethora of approaches that made their debut memorable: chugging riffs locked to the bass drum; dissonant melodic leads; and walls and walls of power chords.
Do Pas O’s debut album isn’t just an LP-length barrage of percussion, though anyone expecting exactly that from Peter Negroponte, best known as the beastly drummer of Guerilla Toss, can’t be blamed. Instead, Join the Fucking Drum Circle is a psychedelic squawk from the inner depths of his strange and beautiful mind.
Clearance have been releasing the kind of breezy, effortless rock that serves as the perfect backdrop to the end of summer haze for over four years now, and with the release of their 7” single Are You Aware last August, the band proved that they have grown even more adept at stringing together infectious guitar hooks and vocal melodies.
The name change isn’t merely a product of Dwyer’s indecisiveness or dissatisfaction with the “Thee,” but rather reflects the concrete change that’s taken place over the course of a few years’ experimental transition. As evinced by its terse title, Orc aims to cut the fat off last years’ trial runs and introduce the new Oh Sees thesis.
"My Angel" opens with whirring effects, plucky strings, and a bedroom-softened rhythm, adapting together with an onslaught of spiraling guitars and sporadic bass lines, coming and going without warning. The video, directed by kindred spirit Joey Agresta, pairs together triumphantly low quality computer animation with a certain emoji brought to life and seemingly longing for a companion.
There's No Saving This House, is a drift into another dimension, a gorgeous and scenic record bound by no genre constraints and full of enchantment. It's an album about "acceptance, confusion, self doubt and the way these states can cycle," but it feels at ease, comfortable in it's skin and free of tension.
