Big Jesus – Oneiric

By RingMaster Review on October 7, 2016 • ( 0 )

Pic cred: Chris Sullivan

Imposingly dreamy, Oneiric is a proposal which simply infests, seduces, and lingers with increasing potency listen by listen. The new album from Atlanta bred outfit Big Jesus, the transfixing Oneiric is a warm serenade of the senses but equally has a predacious side to its shadows and rhythmic weight which hooks eager attention. Mellow and raw, seductive and fiery, the band’s sound sits somewhere between My Bloody Valentine and Deftones, Smashing Pumpkins and Palms but is all the time weaving its own distinct adventures now collected on one gripping album.

According to vocalist/bassist Spencer Ussery, the Big Jesus sound was bred on inspirations found in nineties rock; everything from metal, psychedelic pop, shoegaze, hip hop, and classical piano music impacting on the ideas and music of the band. It is a mix which lured potent interest in the band with the release of their debut album One, and is set to escalate as the Matt Hyde (Deftones, Slayer, Monster Magnet, Sum 41, Alkaline Trio) produced Oneiric swarms over more and more ears.

Bringing four tracks from their earlier release with six new encounters, Oneiric quickly grabs ears and imagination with opener SP, the song instantly a writhing mix of fuzzy melodies and hungry grouchy riffs. It is imposing yet inviting, especially as the warm tones of Ussery float across the feisty landscape of the song. Guitarists CJ Ridings and Thomas Gonzalez cast a great web of warm and aggressive enterprise too, riffs and grooves a conflicting yet beautifully united adventure which with the ethereal nature of Ussery’s voice offers a House Of Love meets Smashing Pumpkins enticing.

art_RingMasterReview The snarling air of Ussery’s bass and the intensively swinging beats of Joe Sweat make a matching powerful lure, their driving energy and dark nature as virulent in the following pair of Always and Lock & Key. The first of the two is a ridiculously catchy affair, it’s relentlessly twisting grooves and rhythms a feistily contagious invitation wrapped in magnificent psychedelia/ shoegaze spiced vocals while its successor musically ventures down the same creative avenue to create its own tempting while caressing the senses with romantic melodies as sonic suggestiveness warms with celestial hues. Again there is heaviness and intensity involved which sublimely tempers the bright air and only increases the potency on ears and imagination.

Through the rapacious directness and melodic meanderings of Floating Past You and the gentle yet intrusive and slightly melancholic croon of Fader, the album transfixes with ease while their successors, the sonically incendiary Shards and the heavy metal hued Oneirica only tighten the pull of one increasingly engaging encounter. The latter is another song which fizzes with infectious vitality and a rhythmic boisterousness which seems to inspire all the other elements making up the outstanding and seriously enjoyable multi-flavoured track.

Shrimp caresses the senses with its melodic and vocal gossamer next; a golden kiss on ears with a fiercer underbelly. it is an irresistible calling on appetite and emotions before Felt In Reverse coaxes the senses with magnetic reverberation into another sonically flaming and vocally seductive fire of sound and imagination. As at times across the album, surface elements of the song seem a touch similar to that of other tracks but with closer focus and each subsequent play, the song reveals its own mesmeric and often wonderfully volatile character of craft and invention.

Concluded by Heaviest Heart and its mix of irritable predatory riffs and airy almost diaphanous melodies and harmonies, Oneiric is pure temptation in your speakers. As suggested, the album simply grows and further entangles the listener with every listen, unveiling plenty to satisfy fans of rock music from psych and melodic rock to shoegaze and grunge.

Oneiric is out now via Mascot Label Group / Mascot Records and available across most online stores and @ http://www.mascotlabelgroup.com/big-jesus/