Black Oak - Egolution - Metal Epidemic

Black Oak – Egolution
Release Date: 14th April 2023
Label: Self-Released
Spotify
Genre: Post-Metal, Progressive Metal.
FFO: Spritbox, Cult of Luna, Sleep Token, Vola.
Review By: Mark Young

Debut release from Black Oak, Swedish post-metal / progressive act which sees them unleash their art for your attention. So, let’s get the initial reaction out of the way and let me tell you why it’s ace. I shall not be taking questions at this time, it’s just a perfect cleanser for a ton of music I’ve listened to recently that seem to want to offer the same stuff, whilst proficient in that genre it just gets samey.

Right, with that out of the way, Black Oak have delivered a stunning album which has a lot of everything you want in heavy music. Everything is put together with the song in mind, its arrangement and how all the pieces fit so that their secret weapon can just slice through.

That secret weapon is Samuéla Burenstrand.

We start with a short intro piece that is both soothing and ethereal in its application that segues into Trauma, with stabbing guitars / barks that dive straight into the cleanest of clean vocals, with equally soft guitar before switching back. This is repeated almost too quickly, which seems that they are showing their hand too soon. It combines some great vocal work with that progressive sequence and then closing out is a riffing passage and back to the growls. So initially I thought this was how it was going to run – dirt / clean / dirt – yawn.

Absolutely not as Shadows brings a muted opening that rises to let the growls in as it runs to its now expected path where there is the clean (very, very good) singing parts before dropping back to the growls, all of which are handled extremely well.

Where this excels is the softer moments where the voice is given the stage and then gives it all with the growls. Musically, everything is there without overshadowing the singer, Samuéla Burenstrand. Equilibrium Pt 1 is an instrumental of discord, almost like the end of Act 1.

Next is Conflict, with a gentle guitar part, again with those almost angelic cleans cutting through then the pedal is pressed, and the grit is back, with some discordant stabs as she switches styles within the same verse which is good. In fact, it’s all good.

Doubt sees them really finding their range, it’s unhurried and just runs, with Samuéla working in tandem with music behind her. It’s showing that they have made the song the focal point and everything else should fall in behind. They keep the momentum going without resorting to extreme BPM. The strangest thing is that some clean vocalists grate on me, but here there are some subtle things happening, and she just cuts through no matter what style she is doing and that the style organically fits.

Equilibrium Pt II is the second instrumental break, and in all honesty, I think they both detract from the songs before and after. Can’t have it all, I suppose.

So we are into the final act, with Death delivering another strong slab and is probably the most straight forward one here, but needs to be to give Transition the room to breathe. The penultimate track is also the longest here and needs to be special to avoid losing what has been painstakingly built on the previous songs. Luckily, there are no worries there, as the voice and arrangements are matched perfectly. It builds and builds until the inevitable heavier guitar parts come in that are aligned with razor sharp precision, and then done.

With Prolog, I’m hoping for two things. One, the order the download came in was correct and two, we end on a high point. Probably the most out-and-out heavy song here, there are some Meshuggah bits in here which underpins everything, even in the quieter parts. Great end to a very good debut release.

I appreciate that female fronted bands aren’t new, and the light / dark dynamic in a song is also not new, but what I like here is how that is attacked and just changed to suit themselves. Having a voice like that helps enormously which is just top class and the musicianship too is on point, without being flash.

Fans of post-metal / progressive should find this as good as I did, and there is a ton of promise for them to build on here. Great stuff!!