Released: 2024
Genre: Heavy rock, Stoner rock, Progressive
Sounds Like: Baroness, Heavy Temple, Familiars
Homeland: Dortmund, Germany
What makes Perception elite and sit atop OHMs Peak?
The latest offering from Germany's heavy psych trio is one of the more original albums to bless our speakers this year
Perception is a complex and tight album. The music transitions effortlessly from borderline doom to stoner and progressive rock. It's a whirlwind of different genres that come together perfectly. The chemistry between all three members is flawless
The duet compositions between guitarist Ben and bassist Linda is incredible. It's something you do not hear very much or at all in heavy music
Scorched Oak are progressing with each release. Their brand of heaviness is very unique as we look forward to where they are heading
Track Listing:
1. Delusion 8:21
2. Mirrors 7:28
3. Relief 4:50
4. Echoes 5:52
5. Reflection 5:13
6. Oracle 8:00
7. Wizard (Bonus track) 5:50
Dive deeper into Perception with our Q&A with Guitarist / Vocalist Ben from Scorched Oak.
OHMs Peak: Your prowess in delivering some of the best duet compositions heavy music has ever seen is enthralling. We find it comforting and the back and forth banter rivals any Kenny Loggins or Kenny Rogers duet. Tell us about how you construct such great harmonies and unique chemistry within your song structure?
Ben: We put a lot of time into fine tuning. So while we are writing we record all the ideas and try different variations until everyone is satisfied. This is kind of a golden rule too, if some of us is not satisfied with any part it will be reworked. For now in the end it was always worth the effort. So it‘s quite a lot trial and which takes some time.
OHMs Peak: The album seems to touch upon dark, fantasy dream-like sequences. Where do you get your creative influences from?
Ben: We love to keep our songs very dynamic, therefore you find a lot of up and downs in our songs in several variants. Like one instrument pauses, the tempo or the volume varies or both. In our opinion this keeps the quite lengthy songs still interesting. Fun fact, we are not able to write just simple straight forward songs. We tried it several times but always ended up with longer, more complex songs. So this was kinda the prologue for your question… For the creative influences though I can mainly speak for myself though we write most of the songs together, where everyone puts his ideas in.
For me, I listen to music all the time, in the car, at home or at work and I love and need variety. When I‘m at work I prefer to listen to instrumental music which helps me to focus. Often this will be a movie soundtrack which I think has often an influence on the stuff I‘m writing and the ideas I get since soundtrack music is composed quite different compared to rock music. The other thing that gets me going is hiking. I don‘t know exactly what it is but it works almost every time getting some ideas out there.
OHMs Peak: What's behind the bonus track 'Wizard?' We noticed it has a more playful and different vibe than rest of the album. It definitely is an earworm.
Ben: The reason that Wizard sounds different is, that is was written in a time when we were a 4 piece with two guitars. The song was part of our first EP which was released in 2018, so I think we wrote it around 2016/2017. The whole EP sounds quite different compared to our full length Albums. So I think the main factors here are the early stage of the band and the two guitars. Adrian had to leave the band at some point because of health issues (don’t worry he is fine). Though we wanted to keep this song and had to rearrange it slightly. And here we are.
OHMs Peak: Can you provide a glimpse into the name of your band (Scorched Oak)? It's unusual and a cool name?
Ben: Even if the answer might be a bit disappointing or boring, but there is absolutely no fancy story behind it. We needed a name and tried to avoid the super cliché ones in the scene.
OHMs Peak: The album cover is very unique. Would love to get more insight behind the creation?
Ben: As you may have noticed this is a bit of a concept album. It works best for us to have a golden thread while working so we can build everything around this. Not to tight so, since we still want to flexible especially for the musical part. So since every song is more or less a part of Perception we wanted to have this shown in the artwork as well. So we asked our designer Maciej Kamuda to add some optical illusions and referenced the Maurits Cornelius Escher Stairs to him and that‘s the result. But we are lovers of much detail so we wanted the back different but still fitting to the front. You might see some similarities to Howl‘s Moving Castle here.
OHMs Peak: Scorched Oak is stranded on an island with only a solar powered record player. The entire band must agree to only 1 album to have during your stay… what album is it?
Ben: I think we all agree that this would be the self titled album of Red Fang. This thing is just one of the greatest ever.
Scorched Oak are:
Linda-Bass, Vocals
Ben-Guitar, Vocals
Freed-Drums
Written and arranged by Scorched Oak
Produced by Scorched Oak and Robin Stirnberg
Engineered by Ben Plochowietz and Robin Stirnberg
Mixed by Robin Stirnberg
Mastered by Esben Willems at Studio Berserk
Cover artwork and layout design by Maciej Kamuda
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