Oskoreien – Hollow Fangs
Release Date: 18th July 2025
Label: Self-Released
Bandcamp
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, Post-Black Metal.
FFO: Mare Cognitum, Aara, Spectral Wound, Paysage d’Hiver.
Review By: Rick Farley
Formed in 2003 by composer and multi-instrumentalist Jay Valena (vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, drum programming, bass on tracks one and five, synthesizer), the Los Angeles based black metal project Oskoreien return for their self-released and third full length album, Hollow Fangs. Being joined by Rashid Nadjib on rhythm guitar and Matthew Durkee on bass for tracks two, three and four, the band balances atmospheric fury with philosophical weight. The tension of ferocious tremolo picked, icy guitars sharply cut while the crushing vastness of menacing atmosphere sucks all the air out of your lungs. This fusion of anguish forms an angry record that still has melody and post black tendencies which do their fair share of further enhancing its sheer wickedness. The post-black aura of this record does not lean far towards melancholic, but rather a soundscape of the nauseating realization that your end is inevitable. These melodies while mesmerizing are not hopeful, they’re anxiety ridden, dark and fiercely potent. It’s chaos, sometimes dissonant, has the purpose of meticulously infecting your consciousness before it annihilates you.
Despite all this nastiness on Hollow Fangs, there is a sliver of humanity to be found. Texturally there are moments where just a bit of life reaches out in hopes of being seen or heard. Whether it be a forgiving tempo, a melancholic chord structure or just a melodic guitar lead that casts a less dark shadow over everything. These little flourishes of dynamics ease some of the suffering framework. In the regards of atmosphere over aggression, there’s just enough that works in unison within the soundscape of the records brutality to give you a little air back to breathe before your chest cavity is fully collapsed.
Hollow Fangs was produced, recorded, engineered, and mixed by Jay Valena in Los Angeles and mastered by Jack Shirley at Atomic Garden Studios. The record is dense, with a suffocating feeling about it. The guitars are trebly without being grating on the ears but have that corrosive, sharp edge to them. The bass has a full depth of warmth underneath giving weightiness, but sadly the drums have that programmed, soulless, lifeless sound about them which makes them the least interesting part of the record. Luckily, the songs are so masterfully crafted, with bucketsful of intoxicating black metal that this can be forgiven. Don’t get me wrong, they don’t sound bad by any standard, they’re just missing that human touch of emotion that I feel is important to the atmosphere, especially in black metal. Also, I wish the vocals were just a tad louder, but alas this is still an exceptional record.
If you like your black metal tormenting and hostile, but with shards of melody and enough post black airiness to amplify its ethereal impact, Oskoreien is probably the band for you. Before there’s any confusion though, this is not an old school sounding record musically, and it’s also not anywhere near a shoegaze black metal record, so don’t be confused into thinking either is the case. This is highly infectious, intense, modern black metal that is skilfully written ugliness, which captivates, entrances, and brutalizes all in the same swoop. Hollow Fangs is a record that should be devoured voraciously before it has a chance to devour you. Easy recommend.
(4.5 / 5)
