Hands up everyone who thinks there just aren’t enough ’70s occult rock’ bands around, female fronted or otherwise? Feeling lonely in the corner there? Good. Ok, the rest of you, hands up who thought The Oath slotted neatly into that sub-genre? Yeah, well you’re wrong. Mostly.
Swedish guitarist Linnea Olsen and German vocalist Johanna Sadonis are, essentially, The Oath. Their band, their music. Backed by the rhythm section of Simon Bouteloup (drums) and Andrew Prestidge (drums). And the ‘improvised Voivod style solos’ (it says here) from Henke Palm of In Solitude. Whose presence kind of makes sense when, as ‘All Must Die’ rattles its distinctly metallic head as the opener, you realise the most obvious reference points are not Coven and Roky Erikson, but Mercyful Fate (or In Solitude) and an NWOBHM twist of Angel Witch. Yes, despite the absence of real power riffs and the kind of 70s drawl to Ms Sadonis’ clear and cool vocals this is very much a heavy metal album and all the better for it.
With only just over half an hour for six songs this debut doesn’t hang around either. But that length works in its favour as in those six songs, you get six distinct pieces of music with an overall shared occult feel; from the almost early Danzig rattling attack of that first track through the catchy, bouncing bass pinned hooks of ‘Silk Road’, the more driving 70s rhythm of my favorite song here ‘Night Child’, the Fate draping of the haunting ‘Leaving Together’, the excellent foot down harder on the gas of ‘Black Rainbow’ with some very King Diamond phrasing and ‘Silver And Dust’ leaving a spooky tail to the whole and a guitar lick that reminds me so much of Saracen’s ‘Ready To Fly ‘ that my heart did a little dance.
This is a highly melodic, beautifully executed debut. With the attention placed on the ladies, the truly excellent rhythm section here should neither be ignored nor underestimated either; the boys bring out real character here and allow the guitars and vocals to weave around without any power drop. The song writing is much more mature than a previous single seven inch would lead you to expect too; varied and with The Oath’s own identity coming through its otherwise somewhat obvious influences. I’m not going to go over the top and proclaim the new saviours of heavy metal have arrived, but what I am going to say is that this debut is a cut above any of the recent slew of occult rock, has real character of its own and wears its metal roots firmly and proudly on its leather sleeve. I would personally love a little more weight to the riffs as the songs could certainly carry it, and a little more bite to the vocals just to finally rip them out of the last tendrils of that ‘dreamy druggy seventies ‘ sound and into pure metal. But really it’s all in the hands of the masterminds of the band and these talented musicians seem to have their eyes well focused on where they are going.
There will be much more from them, and you just know that next time they could well blow us all away but already the debut is seriously worthy of your time and cash.
(8/10 Gizmo)
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