Ocean Grove's The Rhapsody Tapes

Label: 

• UNFD
  

Release Date:

• 3rd of February 2017
  

Band Members: 

• Luke Holmes - Vocals
• Jimmy Hall - Guitar
• Matthew Henley - Guitar
• Dale Tanner - Bass & Clean Vocals
• Sam Bassal - Drums
• Running Touch - Studio Member​
  

Genre: 

• ​Odd World Music

Despite the fact Ronon’s Reviews is based here in London, we truly are worldwide. We have readers all over the globe and writers dotted all around. But most information about bands that reaches me is mainly from US or UK sources
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which means I do miss out on a lot of great bands outside of these spheres of influence.

Fortunately, I still follow Triple J (an Australian youth network) on all their social media so I can pick up on a few things in Oz, even though quite a bit still passes me by (Birds of Tokyo latest album).

I got lucky and saw Triple J had recently played Ocean Grove’s The Rhapsody Tapes as their feature album, so after having a quick listen to this 6 piece out of Melbourne I just had to share them with the world.
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It’s hard to classify Ocean Grove’s playing style, personally I’m calling it Nu-Metalcore as the band has laid their sound on a bedrock of MC, but infused it with tough riffs, industrial sounds, deep dance beats, 90’s sounds and a touch of hip hop, which they call ‘Odd World Music’. Just like Sharks in your Mouth last year this one came out of nowhere and blew me away, it’s another debut that really kicks arse.
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The Rhapsody Tapes opens with ‘What I Love About a Natural Woman’ and it’s just a teasing hip hop flavoured noise with minimal lyrics, at only a minute twenty it grabs your attention and keeps you unprepared for what comes next… ‘Beers’ hits the ground running straight from the opening chord, it's pure metalcore filth and I love every second of it. 
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​Just when you’re thinking this is just another Core album ‘Thunderdome’ starts off with very mid noughties Gorillas sound that rocks you off your feet before slamming back on the aggression. ‘Thunderdome’ has the best of both worlds and is a really well constructed song.

‘Intimate Alien’ is Ocean Grove’s love letter to early Korn, dark metal with cleaner vocals and deep bass, I can imagine this track going off live. Last tune to mention that really stands out is ‘The Wrong Way’ because it takes me all the way back to the early to mid nineties when Silverchair was all over Australian radio waves, if someone dubbed Daniel John’s voice instead it would fit perfectly, but it’s not just the nostalgia factor, this is a killer track that slowly builds up and explodes just right during the bridge, this needs to be played loud.

I love covering up and coming bands, they always bring something new and interesting to the table, but I can honestly say Ocean Grove are on a complete other level. Not only have they created their own genre (quite few bands do this these days) but they have melded so many different styles of music that by right shouldn’t go together.

Every track on The Rhapsody Tapes is different in its own right and you won’t hear the same thing twice. These guys have released stuff before but this is their first full length and it’s an amazing start from these lads and I look forward to their next project.
 
PS: Guys, if you're reading this, come to London, I’d love to check you out live.
 
8.5/10
 
Written by a musically homesick Dan.

US Only

Ocean Grove's THE RHAPSODY TAPES

Australia Only

UK Only

Just like Ocean Grove, Sharks in Your Mouth released an awesomesauce debut album, Promises.

So far 2017 has delivered the musical goods, earlier this year SixStringNoise dropped the sweet Cold Damned Season.
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Ocean Grove are shaping up to be a dominant force in aussie metal, can they top the Kings Parkway Drive and their unstoppable Ire?