You may remember my theory about the relationship of ad size to band quality. The bigger the badder. Well, a few weeks ago I was reading a George R.R. Martin novel and thought to myself, "Oathbreaker would be a cool band name". Literally minutes later, I open Decibel Magazine and a FULL PAGE ad for Oathbreaker is staring back at me. Oh great, not only did they steal my band name but they probably suck too. Thankfully, there are exceptions to every rule. And my theory is falling farther and farther apart.
I like the word maelstrom. I also like the word plethora. I get to use both in describing Maelstrom the album. Basically, the album contains a plethora of songs exhibiting a maelstrom of intensity which assaults the listener from all sides. There you have it! What? More words? Now? It's 6:30am! Fine.
I can't help but draw comparisons to Landmine Marathon but the similarity is really quite superficial. Both are fronted by a female who can scream her ass off and both can knock your socks off. But while Landmine can bring the doom and lean more towards the death metal end of the spectrum, Oathbreaker convey more of a hardcore feel. I can also hear some touches of black metal infusing itself in mix as well. Also, vocalist Caro doesn't sound as much like Grace Perry as much as a hybrid of Angela Gossow and Dee Prescott of the now defunct I Hate Sally (who also happened to have some hardcore flavour).
I did read something comparing them to Converge which isn't terribly far off but Oathbreaker seem a little more to the point. I've listened to it a bunch of times and I am still having a hard really putting words together to describe it. Intense and heavy hitting. Would be great live I imagine. Although I could do without the ballad at the end but it does feature a different side of Caro in which her banshee scream turns in to a very nice voice!
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