Band's List Melodic Death Okular Sexforce

Okular from Norway deliver a different kind of Melodic Death Metal. The weird cover art and the atypical name of the album, Sexforce, should already be good indicators of this. While relying on the genre’s foundations: melodic leads, alternation between clean and guttural vocals and alternation between quieter parts and blasted one, Okular incorporated many progressive elements whose main quality is to destabilize the listener. This destabilization feature is actually Okular’s trademark whose only intent seems to bring “what the fuck” into the equation.

Navigating in troubled waters, Okular’s music may be compared to other similar acts that previously released mind-raping albums. Disharmonic Orchestra are one of them but the aggravated pop features on Okular made them a closer match to acts like Beissert from Germany or Iblis from Poland. From bossa nova accents in The King of Life to violent groovy hymns like Ride the Waves of Emotion or Rest in Chaos with their off-thrash accents like Voivod’s Nothingface, everything seems possible for Okular.

And this is exactly also why their music can get so intriguing but also sometimes edging on bad taste. As they don’t restrain from exploring any kind of new direction, it sometimes sounds right and sometimes not. Considering that the album is one hour long, it does require some nerves, willpower and the right mindset to actually enjoy all of it in one take. I personally can deal fine with the first half but as we near the end of the second part, it feels like chocolate: a few may be delicious but too many at once can be sickening. Conclusion: when something’s good, no need to exaggerate.

Okular could have proven their point, their differences, with just 8 to 9 songs instead of the nauseating 13 they chose to come up with. Sexforce is an intriguing record and should appeal to people who long for weird and extreme musical mashups though I believe that the band has yet to come up as more mature in subsequent releases if just to keep the listener’s interest hooked up till the very end.