Artist: Blue Ox
Album: Holy Vore
Label: Independent
Release Date: 02/04/2021
Country: United States
We take a look at Blue Ox and their up-coming album Holy Vore, set for release on April 2nd, in partnership with Earsplit PR.
The band hail from Minneapolis, Minnesota and formed. The band is Dennis Hanson (vocals), Logan Kelly (guitar), Mike Van Heel (guitar), Dan Johnson (drums) and Luke Olson (bass and vocals). The album was recorded, mixed, and mastered at Signaturetone Recording by Adam Tucker
I hope you like d-beat style metallic hardcore, because that’s what you’re in for with Holy Vore. Think a far more chaotic, aggressive and just generally noisy version of bands like Knocked Loose, Code Orange or Ringworm (who happen to be one of my all-time favourite bands in this style). As is common with the genre the band do not take themselves too seriously and have a good sense of humour which is present in their music and their overall essence. This is a something that has always been attractive about bands of this nature, the fact that they are fun. They’re fun in their themes and lyrics, but they’re also fun in that their music is enjoyable to just rock the hell out to due to the sheer level of energy and the overall heaviness and aggression they exude.
Instrumentally speaking the album is a wall of noise that will pummel you into submission. Waves of furious riffs come at you a mile a minute barely giving you a chance to process what is happening. At the same time the drum work on the album is assaulting you from every direction with a non-stop barrage of chaotic beats. The bass is insanely heavy and has a real crunch to it as it powers through the mix to be clearly audible for the duration of the album. Of course, this wouldn’t be a hardcore album without some crushingly heavy breakdowns, of which you will find plenty throughout the album. Vocally speaking the release is furiously aggressive, to the point that it almost sounds deranged at times. From raw screeched/shouted style vocals to simply shouted vocals to a more guttural style. It’s all there and it’s all raw and powerful, but most importantly it has that same unstoppable energy behind it that the instrumentals also possess.
I’m going to admit that I’ve only really come around to d-beat style hardcore in the past year or so and it’s something I still regret to this day. It wasn’t because I was against it or disliked it, I simply didn’t come up in a scene like that and none of my friends were really into it either, so I was just never exposed to it enough to fall in love with it. I had been listening to metallic hardcore mixes for severa years such as Ringworm, however last year hardcore as a genrclicked for me and now I have years and years of wasted time to make up for where I could have been enjoying some incredible bands. Bands like this help to fill that gap for me and make me want to keep digging deeper into the genre. So, if you’re like me and are only just getting into this style of music then definitely check this out. Alternatively, if you already love this style of music then you will probably appreciate this even more than I have and trust me, I appreciate it quite a bit.
Listen to and order the album:
Bandcamp:
