Album Review: Our Last Night - 'Oak Island'

When Our Last Night released 'Age Of Ignorance' in 2012, their "clean vocals" dominated brand of metalcore got lost in the slew of other bands putting out much of the same. Barely a year since their last effort, and Our Last Night have released Oak Island – an EP just short of the length on an album that demonstrates the band’s ability to improve and refine their skills in such a short period of time.

While previous efforts have been relatively indistinctive and bland in a genre that has been tired for a while now, Our Last Night have managed to raise the bar dramatically with Oak Island, suggesting that the cleaner side of metalcore may have the potential to expand and develop into something with a little more depth.

Oak Island is more than a little darker than anything the boys have done previously, with ‘Dark Storms’ kicking off the record with a slow building base riff and haunting violins, rolling like a storm into crushing breakdowns. While there’s nothing particularly special in the clean/heavy vocals in this track, Our Last Night have stretched their talents pretty thin, with spoken word, a gritty edge to the clean vocals and a set of heavy vocals that strikes the perfect balance between viscous and sharp.

More importantly, Matt and Trevor Wentworth have each refined their vocal abilities in separate but equally impressive ways. In ‘Same Old War’ Matt assumes a sandpapery grit to his vocals, while Trevor’s youthful, boyish vocals seen in 'We Will All Evolve' have deepened and strengthened considerably.

Tracks like ‘Reality Without You’ seem to display a meticulous attention to melody and hook, and it's obvious that the band has made the effort to introduce a substantial diversity in the tracking of their instrumentals, replacing breakdown after breakdown for an increase in the diversity of their sound.

This comes to the surface in tracks like ‘Sunrise’, which begins with an exposing, gentle piano ballad, and drops with tremendous power into the chorus ‘You can make it to the sunrise.’ In fact, Oak Island has a whole lot of power behind it, from tracks like ‘Scared of Change,’ and the title track, which never let up, to ‘Sunrise,’ which exposes Our Last Night at their most vulnerable.

In 'Oak Island', Our Last Night are revealing all the potential that was hidden in their previous releases. Punchy, addictive and melodic, this EP is a forecast for better things, for this band and for the genre. Instead of putting out another dry, lackluster post hardcore record, the band has aimed for something with more merit, and have undoubtedly succeeded.

1. Dark Storms

2. I've Never Felt This Way

3. Same Old War

4. Reality Without You

5. Sunrise

6. Scared Of Change

7. Oak Island