Awooga – Alpha – EP Review

Source // Awooga

Awooga? Too much time spent watching Gladiators? Perhaps, either way these Sheffield based rockers are not nearly as combative as that classic 80’s/90’s UK TV show and instead they deliver a grungy take on Deftones and Tool’s more introspective moments.

With doom/sludge-esque riffs jostling with ambitious melodies, the listener is pushed and pulled into ever more disjointed realms by Alpha. Both otherworldly and grounded in human emotion, the result is a recording for those who prefer to sit back and think about what they’re hearing as opposed to head-bang their nuts off…..and from time to time, don’t we all need to take a breather and partake in the former?!

“Thief” steals your attention with semi-aggressive vocals thundering over mid-paced prog-doom and brings to mind the kind of progressively minded output of UK proggers Dorje; featuring a similar warm delivery, filled with emotion and yet challenging in the way only tech rock/metal can be.

But, Alpha cannot be considered metal in a traditional sense either.

In fact, Awooga seem to straddle a fine line that renders them strangely idiosyncratic. As mentioned, there’s elements of rock, metal, grunge, doom and prog within their sound but there’s also something indefinably different about them that’s hard to pin down.

Confusing, eh!

At the end of the day, maybe they’re just Awooga! 7/10