CD Review – Wild Ox Shangri-La
Angry’s Wild Ox Shangri-La seems to have a few cool ideas, like on songs such as Right Loose, Shoot the Messenger, and Rock Sword, but the execution was mediocre. Colony of Murder starts off with a riff and drumbeat that makes avoiding nodding your head in heavy metal glory near impossible, but it slows down halfway through and goes into this weird progressive part halfway through. Keeping things interesting and doing things that the listener won’t expect is certainly valuable in music, but it shouldn’t just be done haphazardly, which is sort of how the structures of these songs feel. Wild Ox Shangri-La is filled with songs that have some really interesting parts, but as a whole are not spectacular songs. It’s like Angry is the sweetest, heavy high school band.
Where the album excels is in what it does rhythmically. Wild Ox Shangri-La may not be an easy album to get into melodically, due to its atonality and dissonance, but the rhythms used on songs like Umbrella Fight are a refreshing way to keep things interesting.
What’s strange about Wild Ox Shangri-La is its inability to hold my attention, and that’s saying something considering I’m literally being screamed at. Interesting ideas do surface on the album, but as a whole, Wild Ox Shangri-La seems like it needs restructuring in a way that the songs don’t sound like they were haphazardly thrown together.
Paul Bogdan
A&C Editor
I cam across this review the other day and after some pondering and discussion with peers–I felt compelled to respond to Paul Bogden's review.
As much as I understand a writer's need to make a name for themselves with reviews such as this I'm a little concerned that Paul Bogdan would publish a review where it honestly comes off as someone who skipped through the 35 seconds of each song.
I find it strange with such a half-hearted listen to this album that Paul Bogdan would honestly sit their and attempt to critique, suggest, and make comments on Angry's songwriting abilities. But ofcourse – Paul doesn't know the songwriting wizards in Angry – so he has no "insight" to the "know how" these lads have. The rich history they have. The reputation they have for their elite songwriting craftmenship. That's the honest truth within the music community.
This review i's honestly laughable. The kicker is — Paul Bogdan (to my estimation) has never seen this band live either. So he has absolutely no idea on the raw power, the musical intensity, and the pure genious that Angry is. Remember, all of that genius exists, and raw energy is allowed to be released in such a way — BECAUSE OF THEIR SONGS!
Paul – check a band out and do some research before you write reviews about bands you have never heard of. It makes you look really stupid!!! #frustratedatwritersthatdontresearchbandstheyreview