Many death metal bands “look the part”, black-garbed and festooned with spikes, pentagrams, bullet-belts, and/or skulls, and others don’t. Norway’s Okular are on the “don’t” side of the line. In their recent promo photo there’s not a band shirt to be seen nor any other allusion to Satan, the Grim Reaper, or spilled guts, and there’s more khaki in their attire than black. They’ve also got a few more years in their faces, which aren’t contorted in evil grimaces, than whatever hot young things you were listening to yesterday.
Some metal bands also churn out music like there’s no tomorrow. On the other hand, if Okular are expecting the end of the world, they’re obviously not anxious about it: 11 years have passed since their last album.
But Okular‘s non-conformity goes beyond their approach to appearance and timetables. Most importantly, it’s represented by their music, which you’d already know if you happened upon either that last album 11 years ago or the one before that, and which you’re about to learn (or learn again) when you hear their new full-length Regenerate. For newcomers, let’s quickly say that it’s neither plain nor khaki-colored. It’s more like the cover art created by Tina Harsheim Giertsen:
Our glorious humble site has been around long enough that we reviewed both of Okular‘s first two albums. I proclaimed 2011’s full-length debut Probiotic “an utterly head-scrambling blast of progressive death metal that brings to mind a gene-splicing of Spawn of Possession, Blotted Science, Black Dahlia Murder, Gorod, Death, Nevermore, and even a few chromosomes of Dimmu Borgir,” and Austin Weber acclaimed the 2013 follow-up SexForce as “a fantastic album that explores beyond normal death metal boundaries, ” a “cascading duality” of “ferocious, intricate death metal stacked with softer progressive moments” that “gives the album a complex yet patient feeling that captures a unique flow and pace all its own.” And we weren’t the only observers who considered those albums mandatory listens.
In addition, both albums were presented in physical editions that included remarkable and extensive booklets with artwork and eloquent lyrics crafted to mesh with the individuality of the songs.
And so we approached Regenerate with high expectations despite the band’s long recording hiatus — expectations that were not disappointed.
Make no mistake, although their promo photo reveals no evil tongue-wagging faces nor middle-finger salutes, Okular remain, as they always have been, a death metal band, and one who are still capable of launching furious attacks on the listener’s senses. That becomes immediately clear through the opening song “Back to Myself and Beyond“.
There, Okular greet their listener with vicious, mauling riffage, skull-clobbering drums, bowel-loosening bass-lines, malignant roars, and mad-house screams. “Mad-house” is actually a good word for the song as a whole. The guitars roil and writhe, shiver and swarm, as deranged in their sound as they are malicious, and strangled screeching tones erupt from a larynx, but Okular also switch up the pace, lumbering forward and groaning like some shaggy, stricken beast, and they also inject bursts of jolting groove along with further bursts of demented, quivering fretwork.
Of course, that song isn’t the only time on the album when Okular channel the spasms and brutishness of a rabid, monstrous creature, nor is it the only time when they gleefully give listeners’ heads a swift spin with their mercurial maneuvers. In fact, it’s really just a hint of the many mercurial (and technically impressive) maneuvers to come.
For example: Piano melodies and seductively slithering arpeggios suddenly appear within the riotously kaleidoscopic jubilation of “Regenerate” (and you might want to scream out the song’s name along with the vocalist). “That Which Matters” rapidly punches so hard it might loosen your teeth and bruise your kidneys, but the frenzied melodies also do sound… witchy.
But even greater surprises lie ahead. Sorrowful acoustic strumming and moody, soulful, and soaring singing (quite good singing!) open “A New Path” and later appear again, but the song also becomes orders of magnitude more ferocious and bone-breaking, yet it also carries forward distressing moods.
Along with gang snarls, gritty singing surfaces again in “Peace Through Chaos“, along with magically swirling guitar-leads and small acoustic accents, and a bright acoustic guitar melody leads us into the instrumental track “Debauchery“, which further includes grand, arena-ready guitar soloing which brings to mind epics of sword and sorcery. Something similar happens within “Another Dimension of Mind“, though that song is also capable of ruthlessly pounding you into the ground, and the singing in that one sounds insane.
We should also mention the sprightly and entrancing elegance provided in the first half of the album’s closing track, a classically-influenced multi-layered guitar tour de force. We’ll let you discover for yourselves what happens in the balance of “Elevate“, which draws a remarkable album to a remarkable close.
Amongst the surprises mentioned above (and others we haven’t spoiled), and across the album as a whole, Okular continue to spin out a multitude of technically accomplished and wildly cavorting instrumental escapades, which prove to be almost relentlessly head-spinning, but they give a place of equal prominence to convulsive grooves, surging bits of head-hooking and sometimes glorious melody, and digressions from death metal into other styles of metal and rock.
You’ll also discover that while the music packs a walloping punch and plenty of scathing riffing, it’s produced in a way that provides welcome clarity – welcome, because it vividly enables us to detect all of the many instrumental adventures and vocal variations, with an even-ness in the mix that doesn’t obscure any of the contributions, all of which again earn the band it’s “progressive death metal” moniker.
We should add this from Okular about the album’s lyrical themes:
Lyrically, the overarching theme revolves around living from one’s authentic, dynamic self, as opposed to hiding behind a mask of conformity. The lyrical aim is to inspire the listener to go deep and take constructive action in their lives, providing an empowering direction for the intensity of the music. In the individual as well as in society, there is a potential for renewal, breaking free from stuck and dysfunctional patterns.
So, how to sum this up? Doing that ain’t easy, but we’ll give it a try: Regenerate is, all at once, ferocious and fascinating, hard-hitting and head-spinning, moving and memorable — a changing amalgam of straight-up barbaric death metal, prog-death metal, melodic death metal, and even, as you venture deeper into the album, elements from good old heavy metal and hard rock. It really is remarkable, from beginning to end.
And with that, we turn you over to our premiere of Regenerate in its entirety:
Regenerate is set for release on June 7th via Regenerative Productions. It was produced by the band’s leader and lyricist Andreas Aubert, recorded in the band-members’ home studios and rehearsal spaces, and mixed and mastered at Strand Studio, Norway.
PRE-ORDER:
https://okular.bandcamp.com/album/regenerate
OKULAR:
https://okularmetal.no
https://www.facebook.com/okularmetal