Ou
II: Frailty

It's strange that the Chinese are everywhere like parsley but haven't made their mark on the international music scene. Just as it's odd that with a ten-digit population, they can't find competent footballers to form a strong national team, while at the Olympics, they always top the medal table. Jokes aside, this is the first time I've taken an interest in a Chinese band, namely the "progmetallers" OU (and now we'll see why I've used the quotes).

Their basic style aligns quite well with the recent trends of the prog-metal genre, inevitably trapped in its djent frenzy but, after all, not so explicitly, set among the inevitable well-sharpened 8 strings and always quite distant from the poignant melodies of its '90s and 2000s heyday.

Said like this, it might not sound original anymore, given that the trend of the last decade has been like this, but something here caught my attention. Certainly, singing in Chinese is already something original, unconventional (although the titles are in English for greater international accessibility), and we do find some melodies with an oriental inflection, but it's a light and imperceptible inflection, mostly limited to the vocals (the voice is female, which accentuates everything), not to the point of being able to talk about an ethnic product; to make an esteemed comparison, the winds of their homeland are felt much more in Myrath, for instance. It's also strange to hear that Mandarin Chinese is even adopted by guest star Devin Townsend, who in the track "Purge" even tries to use it in not too pronounced a scream.

However, what really captured me were other characteristics. One above all is the fact that their music is only half prog-metal; classifying them in the genre is only partially correct, given that in the tracklist only half of the material falls within the genre, perhaps even less, a concept that applies to this second album as much as to the first. The other half proposes something quite different, venturing into ambient, the most relaxing new age, sometimes more audacious, sometimes more minimalist electronics, influences that nevertheless do not spare the more metal tracks. Essentially, OU present themselves as exponents of a genre without really being one, as if they are playing the card of a genre that enjoys a certain following to introduce aficionados to a much broader world. This seems quite exciting, fascinating.

The undeniably prog-metal tracks are the opener "Frailty", the stunning "Purge", where metal energy manifests at its highest power, "yyds", where the typical genre technique shows itself best yet alternates with smart electronics; some doubts already arise about "Spirit Broken", which offers aggressive riffs but is more focused on relaxing and evocative themes.

The rest is quite different. "Ocean" uses prog-metal techniques (and retains some harder parts) but applies them to create a piece of chaotic and intentionally disordered electronic music, absolutely genius in its conception. "Redemption" is quite relaxing and rests on soft guitar touches and vocal lines. "Capture and Elongate (Serenity)" instead offers more hypnotic and futuristic electronics, relying on much more orderly electronic percussion. With "Reborn" we return to very relaxed atmospheres, always vaguely new age, with electronics this time becoming more minimalist and nocturnal. The concluding "Recall" is a pleasant chaos of sounds and vocal counterpoints with an oriental atmosphere, a well-executed musical oxymoron that seals the brilliance of this little-known group.

The surprising thing is that, overall, the most convincing elements are those far from metal; OU work better as an ambient and new age band than as a prog-metal band. As a prog-metal band, despite making excellently crafted tracks, they don't hit the mark fully; they don't come across as sharp and bold as they should, probably because they are not underpinned by top-notch production. Some forum comments point out that the sound is excessively flat and compressed, lacking significant dynamic range and in line with current trends, a choice that ultimately harms the final result.

In any case, these Chinese are truly a pleasant surprise, "Frailty" is one of the 2024 albums that has impressed and surprised me the most, earning itself a rather high spot in my personal final ranking. Highly recommended! Obviously, it's essential to also revisit the first album "one", which follows the same paradigm, of which one could easily copy a review and adapt it for this album.