Following on from their impressive performance in Heat Two of Northern Ireland's Metal2TheMasses this EP is a statement of intent a collection of five dark tracks.
What is clear from the offset that they have absorbed their influences like a metallic sponge, digested them and spat them out with a Belfast anger and bile that makes even the most casual listener sit up and take notice.
While 'No God Waits For You' broods with barely repressed anger, 'The High Priestess' riffs and roll grab you by the neck and delivers several quick knees to your abdomen.
Many rely on their muscular music and the sense, content and meaning can be lost, but on this début release Oracle have substance in all the tracks.
Delving into personal experience, reaching into ancient Grecian history of the Oracle (geddit!) of Delphi, the titular Pythia, this is a construct to shine a stark light on 21st Century society.
For those not up on their Delphinic stories ancients went to the Oracle to get mystic visions from a probably imprisoned woman, who was hallucinating from the sulphur and other noxious chemicals in a volcanically active area.
And, Oracle use this as a metaphor for the modern age - glued to our screens, looking down for the next thing we can but, watch, or slag off.
'Burn The Nameless' and 'Prisons' encapsulate this. Indeed, 'Prisons' comes across as a deeply personal track with the backdrop of a dystopian era we are about to enter.
But, what is most striking about this collection of five tracks is that Oracle have honed their skill on stage; translated that rage on to an EP; and, should they keep this standard they are surely going to emerge as the latest NI contenders.
Review by Jonathan Traynor
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1 comment:
Thank you for tthis
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