Album review: ‘A Treatise On Resurrection And The Afterlife’ by Bog Oak
By Angela Davey
Sacramento’s four-piece, Bog Oak, are a band that have been slowly building a respectable reputation, within the underground, for about a year. Their DIY efforts caught the attention of the good folks at Svart Records and they now find themselves very much in the public eye, with the impending release of their first EP ‘A Treatise On Resurrection And The Afterlife’.
The current metal scene needs another doom band like a fish needs a bicycle and, while that is the sole focus of Bog Oak’s music, they should not be dismissed as what they have to offer is strangely unique to an incredibly oversaturated sub-genre. Bog Oak weave together fuzzed-out sludge atmospherics, colossal traditional doom riffs and blood curdling black metal to produce something surprisingly cerebral for an act that are so fresh.
The crown jewel of this quartet is quite obviously their vocalist Julie Seymour. Her voice possesses a range that is simply awe inspiring; able to switch between forceful demonic screams to dreamy, ethereal, almost shoegazey clean singing without breaking a sweat. Choices in song structures also make for an interesting listen, with every track of this four-song EP staying diverse until the end, switching up between huge chunks of irresistibly catchy riffs to slow burning, lighter than air passages.
Lyrical influences are fairly bog-standard occult and Aleister Crowley territory, however, this is the only aspect of this record that remains unoriginal and it’s executed with such finesse that you’d be silly not to forgive them for it. A genuinely unique and interesting take on a currently very popular genre.
A Treatise On Resurrection and the Afterlife is due out on 28th November on Svart Records.
Find Bog Oak on facebook here.
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