Oak – Disintegrate
Release Date: 10th February 2023
Label: Season of Mist
Bandcamp
Genre: Funeral Doom Metal, Death Metal.
FFO: Hooded Menace, Bell Witch, Primitive Man, AHAB.
Review By: Rick Farley
“In the darkness of earth, all the way up through the barren valleys of the Portuguese mountains, a deep grunt slowly emerged. A rumble, the shaking of the ground, the approach of something dark, something new.”
Portugal’s death doom band, Oak, arise with album number two. A concept album recorded solely as a long, uninterrupted story, containing one lumbering forty-five minute track that is spread out among several movements. Each differing slightly in moods and atmospheres. Releasing on Season of Mist, the story to Disintegrate is as aptly as its music. The burden and liberation of the giant, through music and lyrics. “Suddenly a giant can be heard walking slowly with the weight of the world on his back.” Disintegrate is a representation of the cycle of the burdened giant from beginning to end.
Oak started life in 2018 as members from black metal band Gaerea, vocalist/guitarist Guilherme Henriques and drummer Pedro Soares needed an outlet for their gloomier, more agony filled riffs and cavernous gutturals. The power from the duo’s pairing was evident from the beginning and has never concluded. The bands range of music gives them ample room to explore without constraints. Careening the deepest, darkest places of extreme metals doomiest regions.
Disintegrate starts with clean guitars rich in tone, which are sombre yet melodic. Single keyboard notes ring out in the background, slightly swelling in volume. The intertwining melodies are accented by slow paced drums that are not fully fleshed out as beats yet. Somewhat past the three-minute mark, the composition erupts with a roaring growl from the depths of deep underground, the melody now fully realize into distortion and sorrow filled walls of guitars. It’s melancholic, but still extremely heavy. Guilherme’s growls are pained, but sound monstrous with diabolical harshness. The tracks intensity at this point is haunting with droning qualities that are abundant with wistful ambience, the sense of oncoming dread is strong, but the melodies too entrancing to heed. The second movement takes a heavier, more downtrodden approach with double kick and pulsing basslines. The guitars are darker and looming, never moving much faster than a slow pace, you can feel the crushing weight of each of the oppressive chords. The piercing lead harmonies are simple but sharp, leading to intense blackened influenced blast beats and huge gutturals. The first twenty minutes of the track is beautiful brutality, separated only by tightly woven intensities. Small breaks throughout the track that separates states of mood, allowing brilliant contrast between violent, sombre, dark, and illuminating. Lots of room to breathe and grow, giving the album a truly organic feel. The vocals get increasingly more brutal and tormented as the track unfolds. The guitars range from every facet of emotion, wretched distorted riffs, melodic leads that convey deep gloominess, bright cleans that are beguiling interludes that smooth themselves from turbulent savagery, mournfulness, and distress. The drums and bass are the driving force behind, dictating the potency of each musically realized movement. Surging basslines, grove laden beats and punishing blasting, are as important as the melody arrangements and vocal patterns, creating one hugely cohesive track.
While Oak is not giving us anything fresh or new in the world of doom, the band does succeed in the sheer quality of music and precise production. Disintegrate is an easy listen from start to finish, building itself into heavy, doomy layers of cathartic atmosphere telling the distressing story of life leading to death. 
(3.5 / 5)
