NEW *** PODCAST
January 29, 2023 in Reviews: King Kraken – MCLXXX – Album Review
January 27, 2023 in Features: 10 Of The Greatest Old-School British THRASH Albums Known To Man!
January 26, 2023 in Reviews: Trastorned – Into The Void – Album Review
January 26, 2023 in Reviews: Malleus – The Fires of Heaven – Album Review
January 23, 2023 in Album of the Week: Album Of The Week – …and Oceans – As In Gardens, So In Tombs
January 22, 2023 in Album of the Week: Album Of The Week – Katatonia – Sky Void Of Stars
January 21, 2023 in Reviews: Torso – A Crash Course in Terror – Album review
January 19, 2023 in Features: Celebrating 35 Years of MEGADETH's So Far, So Good… So What!
January 18, 2023 in Reviews: Defy The Curse – Horrors of Human Sacrifice – Album Review
January 16, 2023 in Reviews: Victimized – Sonic Violence – Album Review
Home » Reviews » OHHMS – Cold – EP Review
OHHMS – Cold – EP Review
...and they did leave us rather in the cold.
Posted on August 4, 2015 by Stuart Bell in Reviews
Source // time-for-metal.eu
Take a load of riffs that could have come from The Sword's first album, shove them in a blender with some Mastodon-style melodic bellowing then stretch the whole thing out to interminable duration before setting the controls for the heart of Canterbury and you pretty much have the measure of the smugly oblique-sounding OHHMS and their latest EP Cold. It comprises just two tracks, yet requires over half an hour of your life. Let's face it: if you're going to hammer one song out to nearly quarter of an hour, that had better be one goddamn good song. What do you reckon, lads?
First track up, "The Anchor" is a nautical portent of things to come as it kicks off with some musing on the Aeolian mode over a rhythm punctuated with some cool-sounding bass chords. But by the time OHHMS bring the heavy, crashing into a shimmering wall of chord-drones that linger on into feedback, we are staring directly at a cleaner, more cheery version of Enemy Of The Sun-era Neurosis. And they continue in that vein – a Neanderthal chord progression, a drum-led breakdown, all accompanied by Paul Waller's skilful vocals reaching plaintively over the music. Each section swells organically, growing slightly more imperative. This ship is on a voyage for sure, at one point even visiting the lick library of David Gilmour, but by the eight minute mark, we are beginning to wish it would hurry up a bit.
Second track, "Dawn of the Swarm", follows the same trajectory: intriguing atmospherics that, more often than not, disappoint when they give way to yet another lumbering, by the numbers riff. There's a more classic rock vibe on this one with backing vocals and traditional chord progressions before the whole thing winds up in a climax of feedback and reversed vocals. Of course, Sabbath are referenced. Zeppelin too. But by this point we have resigned ourselves to the fact that OHHMS, unlike some of their influences either can't or won't be taking us to more musically adventurous climes.
Pretentiously massive songs are all well and good but there are times in the depths of Cold where it feels like OHHMS are little more than a rudimentary guitar, bass and drums outfit who simply do not have the level of inventiveness to sell this kind of proposal. What you really have here is about five or six, simplistic ideas stitched together into two big pieces in order to claim a work of scale and ambition. It is frustrating to have to say this as the calibre of the band's vocalist and bassist alone mark them out from the millions generic bands out there, but we listened intently to Cold waiting for them to blow us away. Sadly, it didn't happen. Not this time anyway. 5/10
King Kraken – MCLXXX – Album Review
10 Of The Greatest Old-School British THRASH Albums Known To Man!
Trastorned – Into The Void – Album Review
About Stuart Bell (55 Articles)
I was born in 1975 with a pile of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple vinyl next to my cot. I ate off a sheet of ply-board propped up between two Marshall cabs and shortly after I learned to read and write I learned the E minor chord and the pentatonic scale. One day my Dad bought me Iron Maiden's first album. Metallica's Ride the Lightning followed. Then, things got serious. I have held almost every rank in the Army of Heavy Metal: Fan, drunk fan, roadie, guitarist, producer and label scout. My Wife knows what Mastodon's Crack The Skye is about and my child can play Breaking the Law on piano. Go figure.
Search Worship Metal
Malleus – The Fires of Heaven – Album Review
Album Of The Week – …and Oceans – As In Gardens, So In Tombs
6 Reasons Why Slayer's Reign In Blood Is Not The Greatest Thrash Album Of All Time
British Thrash: The 10 Greatest Old-School Albums
The 12 Albums That Kept Thrash Alive During The Mid to Late 1990's (1994-1999)
6 Under-Appreciated Classics Of American Death Metal (Part 2)
50 Old-School American Thrash Albums That Were Equal To Anything Released By The Big 4!