OJM, Heavy (2002)

We continue this afternoon with a next installment in the kind of informal series that’s been going on for the last few weeks in these Friday Full-Length posts with another underrated, pre-social media European heavy rocker. Originally released in 2002 through Beard of Stars, the aptly-titled Heavy (also discussed here) is the debut album from Treviso, Italy’s OJM, a band who, at least to someone outside of Europe like me, seem criminally underlooked when it comes to their country’s scene. Today, Italy is booming, with bands like Ufomammut and Black Rainbows and Isaak leading a charge of hundreds of outfits — seriously, if I’ve got email, it’s a one in three shot the band is Italian — but go back to the early aughts and that was much less so the case. OJM formed in 1997, and so were right on the cusp of a wave of post-Kyuss stoner. Granted, by the time Heavy came out, Queens of the Stone Age would have two records under its belt, but in songs like opener “The Sleeper,” the doom-rolling “You Come” and ultra-fuzzed “As I Know,” OJM laid out a stoner rock blueprint that stands toe to toe with what scenes in Germany, Sweden or the Netherlands were producing at the time in both the quality of its songcraft and its affinity for pushing the boundaries of what came before it.

I honestly don’t know how OJM are thought of in Italy. The band celebrated their 18th anniversary last year with a compilation of previously unreleased tracks, and Heavy itself was reissued on vinyl by Go Down Records in 2014, but their last proper full-length was 2010’s Volcano (review here) and I think it’s safe to say that in the last six years the scope of heavy rock’s reach — everywhere — has shifted massively, with a new generation of bands and a new generation of fans discovering the power of riffs and fuzz put to the right use. OJM have played shows steadily these last years, but an album like Heavy, with its noise rocking “Strange Dreams,” its centerpiece Stooges cover “T.V. Eye” and the weirdo experiments of “Mix Up!” — not to mention the spacious desert psychedelia of eight-minute closer “Theorem” — seems to be lost in the shuffle of what’s come since. Maybe it’s hard to get excited about a record that’s 14 years old like one that’s out next month. I accept that. But there’s also a matter of giving respect where it’s due, and the way I see it, OJM are overdue for theirs.

When they released that anniversary comp last year, they said they were taking a “long break.” What that means for their future remains uncertain, but if they’re calling it quits or just not taking the stage for however long, it seems like all the more of an opportunity to appreciate what they’ve done before. Heavy, as one of the best heavy rock records to come from Italy in its era, feels like a great place to start.

As always, I hope you enjoy.

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I had Monday off from work, and even without driving to the office that one day, it seems like this week was eternal. The good news is we got two more bands announced for the first-ever The Obelisk All-Dayer and the response was positive. I’m very excited about this thing. It’s been kind of a rough year since I went back to work full-time, and I’ve been trying very hard to find time to listen, write about and otherwise experience music as much as I can, and I feel like something like this takes that effort to a new place. I hope you can make it, and stay tuned, because the rest of the lineup is sick as well.

Next week… Uh… Well, a lot of videos, for one thing. Everybody and their cousin decided this week was when they wanted to put out their video, and call me crazy but I’d rather not post like five per day, so there are videos slated through next Thursday already for Bretus, Queen Crescent, Hypnos and Forming the Void. So long as nobody else makes a video, should be fine. Yeah right.

As for premieres, look out Monday for a full stream of the Banquet album, Tuesday for an exclusive track from Blizaro, and next Friday for a track premiere from Dream Death. In between, I’ll be reviewing the new Mars Red Sky album and maybe Church of Misery if I can make it happen before I leave to go to the Borderland Fuzz Fiesta on Friday morning. We’ll see how much I can get done, but you know that whatever I can, I will.

R.I.P. Harper Lee. Literature > death.

I’ve got a good friend in from out of town this weekend, so looking forward to a classic chillout and copious consumption of smoked meat and cheese products. It’ll be a time. Whatever you’re up to, please have a great and safe weekend, and please check out the forum and radio stream.

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Tags: Go Down Records, Heavy, Italy, OJM, OJM Heavy, Treviso

This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2016 at 1:42 pm and is filed under Bootleg Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.