Review OCEANHOARSE ‘Heads Will Roll’

Oceanhoarse hail from Finland and state 2016 as the year of their founding. Thus, the four Finns are not exactly to be called newcomers. At the same time, it took a little while for Oceanhoarse to get their debut album into record stores. In the midst of the pandemic, the quartet released ‘Dead Reckoning’ in 2021, the first studio album after a larger number of singles. Even a live album was released before the debut.

With ‘Heads Will Roll’ the band now releases their second album and shows with eleven songs that they definitely have songwriting talent.

Musically, Oceanhoarse are more inclined to traditional heavy metal, which they spice up with a good portion of groove and a modern sound. Since the guys are not completely against melodies, songs like ‘Adrift’ are developed, which fascinates by a good degree of heaviness and at the same time spreads a smoky catchiness.

However, the album starts with a song called ‘Fall Like Dominos’. It’s a gloomy start and even though this mood is carried on throughout the track, the opener turns out to be a well-made metal song that isn’t one of the strongest on the album, though.
More peppy and with clever breaks comes ‘Help is on the Way’ before the crashing ‘Prypopen’ pushes itself into the foreground. ‘Nails’ comes with slamming riffs and a certain melancholy before ‘Carved in Stone’ sets the final note for an album well worth listening to.

‘Heads Will Roll’ is a good metal record that can be listened to more than once. Maybe Oceanhoarse doesn’t use the whole potential they have, but what they offer on ‘Heads Will Roll’ has its charm.