Simmer On The Haze And Malaise Of A “Slow Mood” With O ZORN!

Have you ever felt that longing for social interaction only to have it come back and bite you in the ass once you get it? Post-pandemic malaise, working multiple jobs or overtime to stay afloat in a dire economy, the world around you feeling increasingly problematic and overpopulated, but somehow isolationism and loneliness haunt you. So, you venture out into the wilderness of humanity, hoping for community and companionship. There, you find more people going through it, and they aren’t welcoming to newcomers.

Los Angeles four piece post-metal/sludge outfit O ZORN! have felt this way. Four years since their last album, Your Killer, O ZORN! have regrouped and pushed themselves in a more melodic direction, adding cleaner singing and hookier choruses to their riff-centric post-metal. Check out their doom-laden new video for “Slow Mood” from their latest album, Vermillion Haze below!

‘Beyond the palm trees, immaculate store fronts, spectacular sunset vistas, and a general sense of opulence that Los Angeles projects to the wider world, beats a much darker heart in a city that is still reeling in post-pandemic chaos. Crime, homelessness, drug addiction, and many such social malaises point to a much more unsettled and disturbing reality. It is often said that it is in the art that a location produces, therefore, that we find an accurate portrayal of the true lived experience shared by millions of people in a city that seems each day to resemble more and more that of John Wagner’s dystopian vision of Mega-City.

One band that perhaps exemplifies this more than most is the pulverizing, post-metal four-piece, O ZORN!. Hailing from Long Beach, California, the band is led by enigmatic frontman Bill Kielty, a charismatic and confident performer that sits somewhere between Rob Zombie and James Hetfield in his delivery, and is completed by the exceptional guitar talents of Justin Suitor, the rolling thunder of bassist Justin Morales, and powerhouse drummer Derek Eglit. Together the O ZORN! collective creates the unmistakable, thumping groove that has begun to capture the hearts and minds of metal fans throughout the scene since the band was first breathed into existence in 2013.’

“Slow Mood” is carried by a doomy riff that King Buzzo would be proud of as the drums summon fault line tremors. ‘I wanted a social life/I wanted the long goodbyes‘ Kielty laments, his voice carrying a tinge of Layne Staley’s croon and Troy Sanders’s gravel. The video features the band playing in a Vermillion Haze-d alien world, aglow with mysterious neon blue shapes and columns. The imagery inspires a feeling of alienation and mystery. The bridge takes on more melancholy guitar leads before the chorus ramps up the down-tuned energy. The cerulean mood of the guitar solo leads to a multi-layered vocal climax that steals the show.

O ZORN! have unleashed the kind of grooved-out, post-grunge/post-metal that bands have been trying to capture for decades with “Slow Mood,” a straightforward, depressive rock banger that demands to be played loud for best results. Be sure to check out the rest of Vermillion Haze, out now on Hard Drugs/Seeing Red Records. Pick up physical copies here (US) or here (EU). Follow O ZORN! on Facebook, Instagram, or their website.