In today’s era of revolving lineups, aging rockers, bogus farewells, and multiple incarnations, one must ask when a band stops being said band and merely just a name. I’d say each band is their own individual case. Let’s take Uriah Heep for example. For the past 50 years, they’ve managed to put out classic albums with multiple singers and players. At the helm of the ship is guitarist/songwriter/mastermind Mick Box. Therefore, one could say Box is Heep. On the other hand is Finnish metal veterans, Oz. Like Heep, Oz only has one original member as well (drummer Mark Ruffneck). That said, the sooner you accept this isn’t the Oz whom Quorthon’s bloody hand graced an album cover for, the better.
Ruffneck has fully jumped the fledging NWOTHM bandwagon with a fresh faced lineup on Oz’s latest album, Forced Commandments. Leading the charge is frontman Vince Koiluva whose voice falls somewhere between Klaus Meine and King Diamond. The twin axe assault of Johnny Gross and Juzzy Kangas provides promise, while bassist Peppy Peltola accompanies Ruffneck on the low end. These boys know how to rock and rock they do. The Scorpions influence isn’t just limited to Koiluva’s vocals. Songs like “Goin’ Down” and “Spiders” have a melodic hard rock touch similar to Germany’s favorite sons, as does the acoustic ballad, “Long and Lonely Road”.
From there is a collection of songs which ranges the traditional metal spectrum, but faces some issues. “Switchblade Alley” lives up to its name with production as thin as a switchblade. This continues throughout the course of the album which is a crying shame because with a full production, some of these tracks could have gone from good to great. I say some because this is another pitfall faced by the band: songwriting. “Revival” and “The Ritual” sound too similar to each other. Having them back to back certainly doesn’t help. “Diving into the Darkness”, one of three bonus tracks, also falls prey to redundancy.
Thankfully, things pick up near the end. “Liar” is a fast and angry barn burner. The two remaining bonus tracks, “Break Out” and “Kingdom of War”, close Forced Commandments on an anthemic note. I’m not sure what the point was of having three songs labeled as “bonus tracks”. Couldn’t they have just been part of the album proper? This is a rant for another day, but I digress.
Forced Commandments pales in comparison to Oz’s finest works (Fire in the Brain (1983), Turn the Cross Upside Down (1984)), but avoids falling into the clutches of mediocrity thanks to its tight-knit unit and a handful of catchy headbangers. If you’re looking for “Total Metal”, you’ve come to the right place.
6 out of 10
Label: Massacre Records
Genre: Heavy Metal
For fans of: Scorpions, Accept, Riot