Post-sludge metallers Ohhms explored heavier, grander, progressive dynamics on 2020’s Close. It helped to label the band as one of the UK’s metal best kept secrets. Two years on, and the UK based outfit return with Rot, as they burst back with an explosive horror fuelled themed set of songs.
The eye-catching album sleeve poses potential listeners with the question ‘Can you stomach the eight horror drenched songs within?’ while simultaneously invites you to ‘Dive into the filth.’ This confident, no nonsense, purposeful album cover translates to the grooves within as Ohhms come armed streamlined with shorter – a less is more philosophy – and an all-round punchier sound for a far greater immediate impact. They still contain progressive elements, with a nod to Torche, and an even bigger nod to Baroness, but with the direct assault of another best kept secret UK metal outfit, the now sadly defunct Limb.
The source of inspiration for Rot is the horror movies they have viewed in the last couple of years. The opening sound of a film projector and a warped descriptive spoken word indicates what lays ahead. This proceeds into building momentum with the mid-pace, thundering bass, soaring chorus of ‘Let’s scare Jessica to death.’ The Baroness raging, Fugazi tinged “Eaten Alive’ warns ‘it’s a death trap.’ This newly acquired directness ups the ante even more with the robustly bruising ‘Blood Feast’ – a monstrous riff, a loud and unsubtle in yer face chorus, backed by the rumbling huge storm raging of Chainy Rabbit’s bass. The instant ear worm award though goes to ‘The Mephisto Waltz’ as its siren wailing guitar, a surging chorus, is packed full of action from start to finish.
Though Rot isn’t totally out with the old, as it still contains the band’s exploratory elements. They still pack in progressive trickiness, but in shorter bursts as all songs are under or around the five minutes’ mark, and apply loud and quiet atmospherics on ‘Sisters’ and ‘A Dark Song’. They prove their heavy – going for the jugular – chops by slinging low end heavy sludge on ‘Body Melt.’ While they also carve out a slight left turn ending, as the ‘Swamp Thing’ veers close towards drone to bring different textures, which verifies that the band can go anywhere they wish to go.
Horror movie buffs may enjoy trying to detect the scary flicks which have informed Ohhms the inspiration. Musically, it is an inspired theme for which the band have taken a slight left turn to demonstrate they can deliver in hitting hard and heavy, which may turn out to be the best way in for the hitherto un-initiated. These songs should also be killer live.