Hometown: Porto, Portugal
Album: Disintegrate, out February 10th via Season of Mist
RIYL: Giants. Mountains. Pathos.
One of those overused phrases you’ll hear from metal publications is that a band sounds [insert synonym of big]. Literally any music can sound large with enough volume or quality speakers. That said, Oak really do capture a genuine feeling of mass (is it weight? I’m not a physicist) with Disintegrate, a full-length containing a single 45-minute song. Like a tumbleweed picking up momentum and collecting debris along the ride, Disintegrate deploys a variety of sounds and speeds, suspense and jaw-dropping riffs aplenty. This is blackened death-doom by name, but few bands can touch the level of haunting, harrowing songwriting that Oak has mastered on album two. Telling a continued tale of a giant, it’s notable that this album was created truly ex nihilo, in a dark and empty room, an open vessel like a charred oak barrel ready to take in and transform a distilled spirit into something majestic and magnificent.
The band share how their process ties into the album’s story and themes:
“Our mountains and valleys are reminiscent of the footprints of a giant who heavily makes his way. In the album Lone, this giant is represented through the 4 tracks, but even though they are different stories, they all represent the same concept: A colossus that carries the weight of others on its shoulders, accepting its destiny and continuing to walk heavier and heavier. In Disintegrate our giant finally frees himself from his fate, letting himself melt under the sun, on a steep cliff by the sea. His blood evaporates and creates a red mist around him. This event marks the end of his journey, and as his body perishes in relief, his soul leaves his body and, rising into the air, has flashbacks of the journey. Lone is the burden, and Disintegrate is the liberation.”
“We’re deeply involved with this imagery we’ve created,” they continue, “and we’re looking to find ways to transport it into the rehearsal room when we get together to make new music. Each jam session is almost completely devoid of light, and we block out any outside interference. We even put together a light set and recreated the fog of the mountains as much as possible with our smoke machine. We believe this immersive environment helps us get in the mood for the riffs to start coming out. From then on, we let ourselves go and do several sessions like this. We write the lyrics between these sessions and start to include them in the songs.”
