New North London / Hertfordshire group Oh Doom! release the first single off their upcoming debut EP I Fear This Is The End. It’s a gothic shoegaze blinder that recalls early Ride and Slowdive with a heavy dose of Mogwai with lyrics. Just open your ears for the crashing maelstrom in the middle. They’ve not even done a fucking gig yet! You’re in for a treat reckons Wayne AF Carey. Read on…
Through their indie, post-hardcore and post-rock influences, Oh Doom! have created
an 8-minute quiet/loud song with a pop sensibility. Slow, sad harmonies are sung over
melancholy arpeggios with peaks of distorted hope rising from the despair. “We’ve always played in faster, heavy bands. So, we’ve chosen to slow things down and let the music breathe” says Shaun, the drummer and vocalist. “There’s space for emotion to reveal itself between the notes.”
Oh Doom!’s songs are desperate love stories, songs about alienation, self-doubt, isolation, loss. All Our Songs Are Slow and Sad is the first release from their debut EP, whose other songs, Someone Else, We Lost Our Friends, and Other People’s Happiness, are also takes on failing relationships. The EP will be released on 26th July 2024. So, are Oh Doom! the most miserable band in the world?
“We’re not miserable. We’re melancholy”, says vocalist and guitarist, Phil. “It’s us being
vulnerable and exploring our past mistakes. And there’s always hope in our music.”
The North London/Hertfordshire based band came together in 2023 after inspiration
struck Phil and he wrote a handful of new songs. “They appeared from nowhere” he says. “And when I found myself humming them around the house, I knew I had to do something.”
He invited Shaun, the drummer from a music collective they both played in, live-
soundtracking music to a film, to jam with him. “When we got together, we knew we had something” says Phil. “The songs felt natural. Shaun’s drumming and backing vocals were exactly what I’d imagined in my head.”
They quickly brought in Assad on bass, who Phil had played with in a band with pre-
Covid.
“When we started this band, I wrote ten commandments to consider when writing our
music”, says Phil. “We wanted a clear aesthetic to this band and the rules help. Rule
one is all our songs are slow and sad, and the tenth rule says we can break any of the
rules rather than write a shit song.” The band members bring their own influences and perspectives. Phil, under a pen name, is a novelist. Shaun is a semi-pro wrestler. Assad is a long-distance runner. “We do these vastly different things other than music, but the music brings us together. We have a shared collective vision for this band.”
Oh Doom! headed back to their home city of Peterborough to record the EP. “We
wanted the comfort of home. But there’s also ghosts of our former life there, which
we wanted to embrace in our sound” says Phil. Now they have recordings to showcase their sound, Oh Doom! are hitting the road to introduce new audiences to the band. “These songs were made for playing loud” says bassist, Assad. “And we want to make people cry – in a good way” he adds.
Oh Doom!’s debut EP, I Fear This Is The End, will be available for purchase and
streaming on all platforms on the 26th July 2024.
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Tickets for their debut gig in St Albans 23rd July available here
Words by Wayne Carey, Reviews Editor for Louder Than War. His author profile is here
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