Stream: Oh Sees, ‘The Static God’

Daiana Feuer on June 7th, 2017

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On the cusp of the band’s 20th birthday and 19th album, John Dwyer has decided he’s dropping “Thee” from the name and shall henceforth go by Oh Sees. In brief, Dwyer started his band’s journey in the 1990s with projects including the Coachwhips, Pink & Brown, Yikes, Up Its Alive and Swords & Sandals. Then he formed OCS — an acronym for Orinoka Crash Suite, Orange County Sound, and other things — which started out as instrumental experiments, but would one day evolve into Thee Oh Sees, also going through phases as The Oh Sees and The Ohsees. Alongside these name games, Dwyer has flipped the lineup many times over the years, most currently incarnated with double drummers, Dan Rincon and Paul Quattrone, and Tim Hellman on bass.

With a title like “Orc,” and songs called “Animated Violence,” “Keys To The Castle,” “Cadaver Dog” and “Drowned Beast,” the new album promises adventures in scorching sound through fantastical landscapes of the damned. First single “The Static God” sears in all the best places. Not limiting itself to brain melting, one might feel the urge to jump through a window within the first 30 seconds, flames licking at your arms and feet, only to land on a pillow of soft, melodic “oohs” that appear amid the raining shards of electric guitar. On the verses, Dwyer sings like an evil wizard admiring his wake of destruction. The end of the instrumental break builds to this very pretty wall of noise, like a sun rising in hell.

“Orc” arrives via Castle Face Records on Aug. 25.

||| Stream: “The Static God”