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Oregon Trail - h​/​aven

19/3/2018

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hardcore
Cold Smoke Recordings
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As I'm working my way through the heap of albums to be reviewed I start realizing that this is just becoming too much. I can't keep up with all of this and I'm sure that I'm not the only music reviewer who feels this way. In today's music scene, there is such an overload in releases, some brilliant, others not so brilliant and here I am, sitting next to a pile of CDs wondering if it is all still worth the effort. I know that I won't like some of these albums, and to be brutally honest, this one is one of them. That is not the band's fault by the way. It's nobody's fault. It's just a difference in musical taste, but since we have no other active hardcore reviewers, here we go.

Oh, that sounded rather negative, didn't it? But don't worry. I'll find a group of people to recommended this album, regardless of my personal opinion about. Besides, I can appreciate the music by Oregon Trail. I'm just not fond of hardcore vocals, not even in today's sludge, post- and doom metal scene. Here, the vocals remind me of Sick Of It All, Agnostic Front and so on while the music takes on a different approach, that of post rock acts like God Is An Astronaut, for example.

That, I can certainly appreciate and the instrumental passages on this album are right on point. I also like the fact that most of the music here is mid- to up-tempo, which is a welcome change in a genre that usually takes it slow. By the time I'm writing this paragraph, I'm already through the first three songs of the album, all three are energetic and immersive post hardcore songs with the aggression of hardcore punk and the immersive nature of its adjective, "post". Yet, on 'Aven' the band suddenly comes up with clean vocals which immediately improves my opinion about them.

In a way, I certainly think that these Swiss are a talented and well-attuned band, showcasing an overwhelming sound. I'm sure that heaps of young (post- hardcore fans will absolutely worship this massive, coherent, varied and often brutal sound. For them, obviously, this is a highly recommended album. This will undoubtedly help troubled youngsters through some difficult times and for that I applaud Oregon Trail. I just won't be listening to this album very often but if you're a fan of intense and harsh music, you definitely should.


​Serge

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