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BOG OAK
A Treatise On Resurrection And The Afterlife EP

Svart (2014)
Rating: 9/10

When I first saw the band shot for this relatively new combo from California, I really didn’t know what to expect. Of course, it’s never right to judge a book by its cover, although one cannot help but try to imagine what a band sounds like upon look alone. I thought that maybe, just maybe, Bog Oak would be some type of droll stoner act and yet as soon as I flicked this four-track EP on I was surprised and mesmerised.

Bog Oak plays a fuzz-drenched style of grim heavy metal with sludgy, doom-laden influence mixed with grim, lo-fi death metal quality. I read in the press release that this band pays homage to Hellhammer and Black Sabbath, and I really couldn’t understand how this marrying would work out. After just a few listens though, I’m starting to lay claim to A Treatise On Resurrection And The Afterlife as being one of the best releases of the year without a shadow of a doubt. All I can really say is, Bog Oak are a real find; merging fuzzy, doom-laden riffs with a vocal sound that has got me all hot under the collar.

Julie Seymour is my current favourite vocalist on the extreme metal scene – her demonic vocal coughs are from another plateau; gruff, chesty, and throaty and then the next minute bewitching and haunting, enticing you into the mire constructed by the thick, silted guitar sound and that dense percussion which works in tandem with that suffocating bass.

Just when you think that doom and death metal has run its course along come this posse, almost unassuming in their guise but with enough weight to banish us all to the pits of dust.

Seymour is clearly possessed down to the bones; her dry rasp is a real menace to the ears and for the most part she concentrates on that evil bellow, but every now and then she raises the bar by injecting a wistful, dreamy yet somewhat unnerving gasp. All the while, the lunatics behind her churn out these black waves of primitive doom hinting at, yep you guessed it, an evil concoction of Sabbath and Hellhammer – a truly unholy cocktail if ever there was one. Forget all this female-fronted occult rock for once and for all, because Bog Oak is where it’s at; mesmerising, hypnotic, mystical and downright bloody heavy.

We begin with the down-tuned guitar grind of ‘The Science Of The Afterlife’, which varies pace throughout; lead along its murky path by Seymour’s horrifying smirk, the main framework of this track is one so ashen that it’s difficult to prevent oneself from suffocating in its misery. This is no slow-motion billowing of depression, though – far from it. The track rumbles efficiently along, and then twists us around completely with that haunting mid-section of psychedelic riff-o-rama and ghostly vocal swoon.

‘The Resurrection Of Animals’ increases its weight; a truly doom-laden dirge of frightful detail. Steven Campbell’s drums are a true behemoth, constructed with extra metal to withstand the weight of the heaving riffs and bombing bass.

Bog Oak toy with the further reaches of dark esoterica to form such monolithic structures that by the time you’ve finished with this – or they’ve finished with you – you’ll be crushed as flat as a pancake unable to move for weeks.

‘Time Drift Of Seasons’ is another example of pallid percussion and riveting despair and haunting melancholy, jabbed out by those rolling fuzzed up guitar tones and Seymour’s reflective vocal strains which battle with that inner demon that provides those grimaces of dread.

‘A Sea Without Shore’ brings the EP to a close, the guitar rolling like the black waves they speak of – Seymour begins her sermon in those pensive tones, allowing the brooding drums to travel across the surface of the gloom like grey clouds drifting across the horizon.

The mesmeric quality lies in the way the vocals work in tandem with the general procession of fluff and fuzz until all is still and Bog Oak retires to its hole where it shall prepare for another episode of creeping horror. You have been warned.

Neil Arnold

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