O Zorn! - Vermillion Haze

Angry Metal Guy 50

Like many older millennials, a big part of my childhood was watching the same 10 or so movies on VHS tape. Some of those tapes were not necessarily great for kids, though my parents were diligent in keeping most horror away from my sister and me. The most adult kids’ movie in our collection was Watership Down, based on the 1972 book by Richard Adams, it was a harrowing tale of a band of rabbits looking for a new warren and running afoul of a fascist dictatorship. Most of this movie’s scenes are burned into my memory, and one of them is the return of the heavily wounded Captain Holly, the sole survivor of the old warren’s destruction and escapee from the fascists. ‘All dead!’ he cries as he crests a ridge, shaking and bleeding. ‘O Zorn!’ Zorn means destruction or calamity in Lapine, the rabbit language, and so I was hoping for a Watership Down-themed raze.¹

Thus picking up Vermillion Haze sight unseen, I was a little disappointed to find neither raze nor rabbits, as O Zorn! doesn’t use more than the name from Adams’ tale and plays a fairly straightforward style with elements of stoner and post-metal. Texturally the band has some similarities with a simplified Mastodon, not in the least due to the somewhat nasal drawl of the vocals. The big differences are the structure and pacing. Shying away from progressive leanings, the music is staunch in its adherence to verse-chorus constructions and the tempo sticks to a Goldilocks zone where it never feels either hurried or overly slow. O Zorn! has existed since 2010, but it took until 2020 for their debut to take shape, and Vermillion Haze, too, has all the markings of a band that fine-tunes its music until it’s completely confident in its quality.

Vermillion Haze by O ZORN!

And indeed, there are few obvious flaws to be found. The vocal style is the most divisive element, though it’s fairly familiar in this style of metal, and the riffs are sturdy with enough life to keep the music buoyant, and enough hooks to make it memorable. But at the risk of sounding prog-obsessed, much of Vermillion Haze is a little too simplistic. Almost everything adheres to rigorous 4 or 8-part structures, musical phrases repeated with scant variations, before moving on to the next. Verse to chorus to bridge to chorus. The ambulatory performances underline the unexciting nature of the songwriting, with few flourishes or standout moments. If there’s a variation, the next iteration has the same one. It’s a very safe record, in short, and rarely do I feel like I need to hear more than one verse and one chorus to get the gist of the song.

As is natural, the best tracks become those that break up the monotony, like “I See Through You” and “I Got Mine,” both of which grow in intensity throughout and avoid too many repeating patterns. On the other side of the coin, the lethargic “Slow Mood” and overlong closer “Ricochet” are the worst combinations of repetitive and predictable, making for inoffensive but rather tiring listens. This issue isn’t immediately apparent, however. The riffs and hooks are solid enough that first contact with the record is rather enjoyable, even if it’s not terribly exciting, and there is enough shake-up from track to track. There is every chance O Zorn! is falling victim to a dichotomy between reviewers and casual listeners. To review something properly, we have to listen to it often, but some albums aren’t made for that, thriving most under less rigorous circumstances. I have the distinct feeling Vermillion Haze is one of those.

Whatever the case, Vermillion Haze has left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it’s a solid album without many immediate shortcomings, that I surmise is most suited for occasional listening sessions or background music. On the other hand, I have little desire to spin it again, and I don’t see that changing in the future. O Zorn! is a solid band, but doesn’t do itself any favors playing it too safe and too predictable.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Seeing Red Records
Websites: ozorn.bandcamp.com | ozornrocks.com | facebook.com/ozornrocks
Releases Worldwide: March 15th, 2024

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