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Ocean Grove

Up In The Air Forever

Written by: PP on 14/12/2022 11:27:27

Melbourne, Australia-based Ocean Grove have reached their third album on "Up In The Air Forever", a schizophrenic record that seemingly can't decide whether it wants to be a nu-metal album or an alternative rock one. A funny way to describe it would be to say if Green Day played nu-metal, this is probably what the result would be. It's an unapologetic expression where it certainly sounds like the band is having a blast while playing it, so whether you'll enjoy it will come down to your opinion on whether nu-metal is at all relevant in 2022.

"Flava" opens the record with its rock star lyrics that right away sound derivative of Smash Mouth's megahit "All Star". It is emblematic of Ocean Grove's plagiarism problems across the record. They may have been banking on a new generation listening to their record, but having been around when these songs were first circulating on MTV, it's difficult to ignore what's going on here.

"Bored" (feat. Dune Rats), for instance, initially sounds like a Filter song, but then ends up ripping directly off Blink 182's "All The Small Things" during its "Turn the lights off, never left home" melody (Blink's was "Turn the lights off, carry me home" in exact melody). What about "Silver Lining"? Green Day's "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" anyone? "Bustin" could have been written by Eve 6 on "Horrorscope". The title track sounds like something directly from a Deftones record. Even the so-called original songs like "HMU" (featuring Lil Aaron) sound like nu-metal from the early 2000s, borrowing from the most annoying hip-hop songs from around that era.

It's not that the songs are bad. Many of them are infectiously catchy. "Cali Sun", for instance, is a heavy-hitting alternative rock song with crunchy nu-metal distortion and a poppy chorus to go with it. "Noise" is catchy, and "Sex Dope Gold" sounds like a Marilyn Mansion-lite or another similar band given its industrial undertones. "Silence" is proper nu-metal with rapped verses and all. These are fine - as long as you can get over the derivative nature of the album. It's been a couple of decades since the originals, but it irritates me that Ocean Grove's style is being marketed as innovative and fresh when in reality it's just a rip-off from another era.

Download: Sex Dope Gold, Cali Sun, Bored, Noise
For the fans of: Papa Roach, Smash Mouth, Cane Hill, Eve 6, Lit, Cage9, Filter
Listen: Facebook

Release date 22.04.2022
UNFD