Das OATH consists of seven screamo songs that total about 11 minutes. Released on Three One G, sometime-home to acts like The Locust, Blood Brothers, and their ilk, the half-American, half-Dutch band kick off their self-titled piece of violence with a track (“Reliquary”) that sounds kind of like At the Drive-In’s “One Armed Scissor” before rocketing off into fiercer territories. After doing some digging on these dudes, it seems like they’re into a sort of sneering irony about the self-righteous state of political hardcore. Kudos. Although it’s a bit hard to say terribly much about the record -- I’m kind of into “Scrapped,” which has a cool junkyard percussion breakdown -- the band’s technical adroitness is undeniable, and they actually qualify as one of the more straightforwardly “fun” acts on their label. Go figure. But whether or not Das OATH are making any kind of coherent statement is more or less beside the point. To me, Das OATH is the kind of album you’d pick up after getting totally annihilated by these guys in some sweaty club. I used to do that in high school.
1. Reliquary
2. Scrapped
3. The Twinkle in an Eye About to be Blackened
4. Tropical Malady
5. The Terror, the Delight, and the Unendurable Pointlessness of Trying
6. Years of Veneers
7. All the Songs Have Been Sung