By Andrew Bansal
As a follow-up to their 2012 debut full-length ‘Adonis’, Phoenix AZ based psychedelic rock/metal trio The Oxford Coma have completed work on a six-track, 24-minute EP called ‘Morphine’ which is now streaming in its entirety on their bandcamp page and is set for a limited edition blood red vinyl release on December 2nd 2014. Besides boasting of an attention-grabbing band name, The Oxford Coma’s music on this EP is intriguing in equal measure.
Having been around since 2011, The Oxford Coma have clearly developed their abilities to express their emotions through music of such high intensity, portraying their personal life experiences in the process, vocalist/guitarist Billy Tegethoff conveying the grief a family tragedy with the title track, for example. The most unique aspect of this EP is it was recorded live and is unabatedly raw, delightfully in the vein of Eyehategod more than anything or anyone else one can relate this music to while listening to it.
Starting with the short intro track ‘InfraStatic’and journeying through the aggressive, chaotic and sludgy ‘My Riad’, the slowly crushing ‘Tradition’, the introspectively melodic ‘Grindstone’, the menacingly heavy ‘Morphine’ and the grim melancholic closing track ‘Black Balloons’, the EP brings forth excellent performances on vocals and all the instruments. This is the most interesting piece of music I’ve heard coming out of Phoenix AZ in a long, long time, and with the release of this EP, the whole world of heavy music fans must be introduced to the brilliance of The Oxford Coma.
Rating: 9.5/10
Track Listing:
01. InfraStatic (Thanks Uncle Sam)
02. My Riad
03. Tradition
04. Grindstone
05. Morphine
06. Black Balloons
Links: website | facebook | twitter | bandcamp