A Killer Record From Oh, Are They?
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An album release from Oh, Are They? brings on a heavy-handed post-hardcore approach with loads of post-punk elements as well, and a thrashy undertone along with these massive and sonically driving guitar tones and soundscapes that give the whole record a sort of atmosphere.
The Guilt LP has layers to it. The songs take on a slew of other influences if you listen to the entire record. Some tracks bring elements of classic post-punk, especially tracks like "Perfect", but you also have progressive and grunge flowing through the veins of this record as well. It's something that goes to show you how these guys are a band that utilizes every ounce of influence that they have to create something unique.
Some of my favorite stuff on the record is the heavier songs like the second track called "Stop Hitting Yourself", which displays a powerful and edgy, heavy rock feel, which breeds that post-hardcore aesthetic. You can hear straight punk elements at times and just so much more that you start to realize, about halfway through the record, that you're still in for more surprises.
By the time you get to the 4th or 5th track in, you begin to expect the unexpected.
This is something I found super refreshing.
The guitars are bountiful when they want to be, with massive and heavy distortion and a thrashy underbelly, but at other times they are vast and distant with elements of melodic flow and an almost dreamlike sense.
Being able to combine those elements on one record is something that helps build that atmosphere and gives you a full experience.
You're going to want to listen to this record in full. This is not the kind of record you just listen to one or two tracks and then call it a day. One or two songs will not give you anywhere near the full spectrum of what the album has to offer.
As I said before, there are thickly laid atmospheres, textures, and tones floating through the ethers of some of the songs, and plenty of those surprises around the corners of it all.
What's also impressive to me is the sheer energy and how the intensity levels fluctuate throughout the album.
Certain tracks feel almost like they were recorded live on the floor to an extent, and everyone involved was feeding off of each other's energies the entire time.
They put you there in the moment in a way.
The vocals are almost always melodic, but they do have a sense of power and energy behind them that helps push things a little further along in terms of delivering something that has emotion behind it.
Listening to the lyrics, you can really pick up on how some of these songs bear a lot of honesty, and I thought that comes spilling out for everyone to soak in.
Tracks like "Everything The Light Touches" are a perfect example of exactly that.
There are plenty of moments throughout the record that are very soft and quiet, almost like a whisper, so you are getting pulled into the lyrics before the song picks up into full swing.
This is a brilliant way to draw you in and also give you that sense of personality and character, which this record is completely riddled with through and through.
It's definitely refreshing to have an album that's this big and captures the momentum of emotional drive the way that they do it here.
It also has an amazing balance of tones and textures throughout its course.
You can tell there was a lot of attention to detail during the creation of this record, for sure, but throughout it all, it never does lose that character, which is maybe the most important thing about the record.
For me, getting attached to that personality and character was key, and I loved how the whole approach was done musically because I grew up with a lot of post-hardcore and post-punk, so these guys captured the aesthetics of those while bringing in those other elements perfectly.
When you listen to the record from start to finish, you pick up on the sense that it's kind of like a concept album of sorts.
Songs interconnect with each other, and there are things about it that make the songs confluent and tell stories in a straight line. Almost like it's linear.
The first track is called "Movable Headstones", and it's an amazing way to introduce the record because it presents both the heavier and the softer elements you hear strewn across the album's course.
The closing song is called "Removable Headstones", and the rest of the songs are sandwiched in between.
A brilliant approach. I absolutely fell for this record heels over here simply because it gave me so much of what I expected and more.
As I mentioned earlier, I grew up listening to a lot of this kind of stuff, and these guys nailed the aesthetic so well that it felt nostalgic in a sense, but I also connected with it on a more personal level and felt heavier songs on a musical one.
This was an all-around awesome record, and you should absolutely listen to this one again, from beginning to end, all the way through in one shot.
It was meant to be listened to that way, and it's good to have an album that's meant to be an album again.
Check this out right now and remember where you heard it first.
