OHHMS - Bloom

  by John Clarkson

published: 4 / 12 / 2014

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OHHMS have attracted notoriety by being only the second band to sign to the long-standing metal label Holy Roar by simply sending to them some music. One wonders if it was ‘Bad Seeds’, the first of the two lengthy tracks that make up ‘Bloom’, the Ramsgate-based doom metal/psychedelic/prog rock group’s 32 minute debut, that label boss Alex Fitzpatrick heard first. As an opening statement of purpose, ‘Bad Seeds’ – about the multinationals’ ransacking of the planet - could not have much more of an impact. It starts with singer Paul Waller’s gnarled yell of a vocal and slow-grinding, industrial guitars creeping ever upwards. By the two-and-a-half minute mark of this eighteen minute opener, one feels as if it could not get any more intense. And yet it does. With some fine drum work from Max Newton who sounds like he is beating an anvil rather than a drum-kit, and impressively savage guitar and bass from Daniel Sargent and the improbably-named Chainy Rabbit, it continues to evolve, building up layer upon layer. OHMSS always maintain an underlying sense of melody throughout, but at ten minutes ‘Bad Seeds’ is a mass of discordance. Then comes the band’s masterstroke. Suddenly after a brief volleying guitar line, everything cuts away to momentary silence. Out of this, in complete contrast to everything that has gone before and revealing that they can do restraint as well as they can do fury, there arises another guitar line from the band’s other guitarist Marc Prentice, but this time of the sort of ethereal loveliness that dominated Pink Floyd’s classic albums of the early and mid-70s. ‘The Rise of the Herbivore’, the fourteen minute second track, involves similarly enthralling quiet/loud dynamics. As befits a band who list on their Facebook page one of their genres as being ‘Animal Rights’, ‘Rise of the Herbivore’ is about the slaughter of animals. “It is not sustainable to keep our bellies full from the blood of animals/It is paramount to murder,” Waller, who is a vegan, sings huskily about genetic farming. It begins with softly buzzing guitars and an occasional clicking drum beat, builds up into a further crescendo of noise and then drops away in its final minutes into another of Prentice’s shimmering guitar lines. Perhaps what is most surprising about OHHMS is that they have been together a little over a year and only played their first gig in April. Yet already they are playing music that would equally be suited to an orchestra. ‘Bloom’ is essentially modern classical music.

Track Listing:-

1 Bad Seeds
2 Rise of the Herbivore

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/OHHMStheband
https://twitter.com/ohmsband

Label Links:-

http://www.holyroarrecords.com/categories/all
https://www.facebook.com/holyroarrecords?_rdr=p
https://twitter.com/holyroarrecords
http://holyroarrecords.tumblr.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/holyroarrecords
https://instagram.com/holyroarrecords/

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