OX – State of Change (EP)
Release Date: 14th October 2022
Label: 7hard
Genre: Post Grunge, Nu-Metal, Rock.
FFO: Alter Bridge, Sevendust.
Review By: Jason James
Karlsruhe, Germany, 2015. Simon Ochs has an idea for a band. He enlists drummer Max Siegmund, bassist Niklas Reinfandt and guitarist Nadir Zee. After releasing the album Rewind to Overwrite in 2016 and Breaking Point in 2019, like so many other bands, their momentum was halted by the global pandemic. Now, with the world starting to return to some sense of normality, the quartet prepare to get rolling again with the imminent release of their new EP, State of Change.
This is quite a radical departure for this band. Their previous two albums do not fall into the post grunge genre. Ox is definitely going for a harder sound this time. The lyrics are darker and more desperate, and their sound has certainly veered in a nu-metal direction here.
I really wanted to love this EP, but I kept coming back to the same point after each listen. That point being that this has been done better several times over the last quarter of a century at least. The press release for State of Change states that Ox was trying to recreate the sound of the early 2000s but with modern production and on this front, they have succeeded. But there is something lacking.
I am not trying to say that this band is not good. This EP was a pleasant listen from a good band who have taken a step in the right direction with their new sound. I just found their sound a little formulaic and there wasn’t really anything new to get my teeth into. I understand that it is immensely difficult to do something original in music and especially in metal, but in a genre where you are going to be compared to other bands past and present, you have to have something distinctive to rise above the crowd. And I don’t know that Ox does yet, unfortunately. This is a half decent start, but they have more work to do.
(2 / 5)
