CD REVIEWS

Oblivion Gene - Self Titled E.P.

Huddersfield outfit Oblivion Gene have been gigging since late 2007 and have decided to put three of their tracks to CD with a little help from Kerry at Grubby Nun Recordings. Having heard my fair share of demos ranging from the good, the bad to the downright terrible, I can say that for a first demo this is a fine effort. There are no obvious flaws in the production, and in terms of the musical output from the band what we have is three solid tracks that show Oblivion Gene to have something of a distinctive sound.

Opening track ‘Conspiracy Theory’ is introduced with a voice sample of everybody’s favourite US president Bush, which backs up the political nature of the song nicely. Of all the tracks, this one has the most straightforward metal sound with a guitar sound that has me thinking of Pantera, and while not as strong as the memorable ‘Blackbagged’, it does seem to set everything into motion.

There’s an increasing amount of melody brought into the mix as we continue through the intriguing intro to ‘Blackbagged’ where tremolo sound is met with the militaristic marching drum patterns that compliment each other well, and though ‘Evolve Mankind’, which begins with a bit of a Machine Head vibe that has me thinking of the melodic ‘Aesthetics Of Hate’. This begins with a clean guitar tone that works with the bassline to create a mellow kind of atmosphere, before the chorus kicks in and the guitars become steeped with distortion.

The vocals on this track are almost delivered in a whisper throughout the verse, with the backing vocals fitting the general mood of the song. Overall the vocals are delivered with plenty of anger, and it feels a little like listening to the early output from a death metal vocalist who hasn’t quite reached his full potential yet.

On the whole this is a well produced demo that shows Oblivion Gene have a fair bit of potential.

Luci Herbert

Visit Oblivion Gene's Myspace at www.myspace.com/obliviongeneuk