Seldom does a band come along that can genuinely lay claim to being groundbreaking in terms of musical disparity. Sure, many are labelled as such, but how many have actually pushed their music to its limits and beyond and still emerged triumphant?
Not many.
While not claiming to be revolutionary themselves, Melbourne noise merchants Ocean Grove definitely qualify in terms of freedom of expression and mashing of genres that have no right being mentioned in the same breath, let alone side by side on an album release.
Ever since unleashing their 2017 debut album The Rhapsody Tapes, Ocean Grove have effortlessly combined nu metal, metalcore, grunge, rock, punk and rap sensibilities in such an orderly fashion that scribes saw fit to label their music in a completely new category that best sums up each influence and musical note that forms the bands sound.
That term is Odd World music and has stuck sufficiently for Ocean Grove to embrace the term themselves, to the point of naming their upcoming, November 22 album Oddworld. It is both a reflection of the band's eclectic sound and an ownership of the phrase, emphatically capturing Ocean Grove in all of their experimental glory.
In short, ODDWORLD is exactly as its title suggests: beautifully chaotic, sonically kaleidoscopic and wholeheartedly one-of-a-kind.
HEAVY sat down recently with frontman Dale Tanner to explore Oddworld on a deeper level.
"I'm feeling very, very excited," he enthused when asked how he felt about the impending release of album number four. "It's probably… this is the most excited about anything I've put out into the world, alongside my brothers. I sat down last night and gave the album a listen myself to get a refresh on things, and I thought this feels big and (is) a definitive moment in Ocean Grove's career, and I just want to soak that in a little bit after not having listened to it for a bit. I heard it a million times working on it in the studio and gave it that space to now revisit it and think 'holy fuck, this has some power to it'. I really think it's our best work. It's Ocean Grove operating on all cylinders and there's something there for everyone. It's taking all that was great about everything that we've done up to this point and fusing it with this new-found, child like excitement for the future. Just putting that stamp of this is certified Ocean Grove, and you'd better be here for it."
In the full interview, Dale dives deeper into Oddworld musically, how they returned to their roots somewhat for the album, maintaining a flow and consistency despite covering so many genres, the creative process for Ocean Grove, choosing singles to represent Oddworld, finding the balance between styles, how their sound has evolved over the years, their upcoming run of shows and more.