Oh or The Oh.racle is basically a one woman band from Greece. Olivia Hadjiioannou is a multi-instrumentalist who plays every instrument on the album, and also adds almost wordless spherical vocal parts to the twenty-five minutes lasting EP Metallia. The EP is filled with six avangardistic metal compositions, where chaos seems to rule. Listening to the opener Red Lion, I have to admit that Olivia is a very dedicated and outstanding musician, who certainly masters her guitar. On the other hand I would say, sometimes less is more. Especially when you listen to Bee: a bombastic chaotic composition, where Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's bumblebee seems to have crashed into a stone brick wall. The following compositions Androgyny and Resurrection, continue as poorly produced walls of sound, drenched in chaotic soundscapes. With Dragon's Kiss the Greek drama continues, and during the final part Triumph; thank you!, the wall of noise, what it has become, finally ends. Metallia is an album you either love or just listen once and forget about as soon as possible. For me, I did give the album several spins and tried to find something I could appreciate. Too bad the album annoyed me during the first spins, and the annoyance only increased the more I listened to Oh's music. Only recommended for the die-hard avantgarde metal aficionado who can bear poor production. ** Pedro Bekkers (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
