Roots Of The Old Oak is a Doom/Death Metal trio from the UK, that released their first four-track demo tape last summer through the Dutch Hammerheart Records label. While the Doom/Death Metal genre has never been as commercially successful as most other genres in extreme metal, it has brought forth a few big bands. Yet, Roots Of The Old Oak clearly doesn’t want have anything to do with all the My Dying Bride’s and Swallow The Sun’s of this planet…
The first track is only clocking under a minute and is best seen as some sort of an intro that leads to ‘Light Of The Pyre’. While this song has strong musical resemblances with ‘As The Flower Withers’-era My Dying Bride, it has similar mournful riffs and minimalistic drums, it stays far from those darkly romantic or even erotic themes. Instead, it is (loosely) based on the fantastic 1973 ‘The Wicker Man’ film, which stars Christopher Lee and the stunning Britt Ekland. The sinister ambience of that movie is brought to life magnificently with the repeating choruses and the great Christopher Lee samples (“It is time to keep your appointment with the Wicker Man”). The rest of the tracks are in the same fashion, heavily based on slow paced, crushing Death Metal with lots of vocal hooks, melodies and enough dynamics to not get all too one-dimensional. The whole tape clocks just under eleven minutes, but is more than worthy of your time. To top things off nicely, the demo tape is graced with amazing artwork. Definitely recommended for anyone into Doom/Death Metal. Oh, and go and watch ‘The Wicker Man’ if you didn’t already, and make sure it is not the 2006 Nicolas Cage remake.
