Harms Way - Oxytocine

(Black Lodge, 9 tracks, 43 minutes, 85 seconds, reviewed by Adam McAuley)

Very high octane stoner metal that brings strong grooves and reminds highly of Kyuss is what is on offer from Harms Way and they deliver on their promises to become a highly undervalued part of the genre. They show enough of a potential to be considered a band that could be on a similar level to Kyuss and this makes them a significant entry into the metal world on that note alone.

From the outset, we can sense an emphasis on creating huge riffs, which is an aspect that makes them immediately appealing because it offers a way of absorbing sounds unlike many other bands and wants one to become interested on a higher level. The riffs gel together nicely to create a massive sound overall that has a manner of enrapturing you within its boundaries.

Strong stoner grooves round out this entire experience to create a package that has the potential to enamour you with its enormousness. The sound is something that sounds drug induced and this is interesting when looking into the performance enhancing potential of these drugs specifically when applied to an album that uses so many references to them.

The musical performances are top notch with musicians that play the style as though it was their last breath of fresh air in as honest a manner as possible. The guitarists have a suitably hugely distorted style that matches the groove-laden nature of the music and could be considered a pinnacle for the entire stoner genre as a whole while the drumming is solid and the vocals remind of Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age and Kyuss.

The lyrical content of the album matches the esoteric nature of the background music to create an overall experience that attempts to reach an esoteric plane, but with a focus upon the way we feel about the various songs making us further immersed in them. This has a manner of making us become more greatly attached to the stoner type image they try to portray so clearly through Oxytocine.

Some of the ways our relationship with the band would be at an interesting high include the way we scope out their emotional highs which form a background to how stoner songwriting should be performed and are backed up by interestingly massive riffs in terms of density. All of these euphoric elements form a nice relation to bands like Kyuss that we already have a great knowledge of as well.

In conclusion, a near perfect offering within the stoner genre is created that enscapulates all of the elements that would clearly make a highly drug influenced type of work interesting to the listener. We can see them having a need to create big riffs that are backed up by an incredibly fun slant that has a manner of affecting the listener greatly. Oxytocine comes as recommended for any fans of the Kyuss style of music.