Material lives up to genre title

Who is Conny Ochs? It’s pretty hard to tell. A first glance at his Facebook page shows that he was originally born in Halle, Germany and played in bands for a while before beginning his solo career. His music is an interesting mix of acoustic and electric; roots-y and modern, which he’s named ‘doom folk.’ He lists his two top influences as Motorhead and Leonard Cohen, back to back.

So what does ‘doom folk’ sound like? Luckily, Ochs just dropped a new album with that exact title to examine. Opening track “Dark Tower” is a slow, moody rocker with elements of blues, Southern rock and garage rock all giving it extra muscle. The folk strokes are stronger on the next track, “Crash And Burn,” a dark acoustic song mixing lyrical blues clichés with dark commentary about pharmaceutical addiction. Ochs has a strong and expressive voice similar to Ewan Currie of The Sheepdogs. “Hammer To Fit” starts with a cheesy guitar melody, a ripping bass tone and ominous drum rolls before the chorus adds an organ for gospel flair. Other standouts include the melancholy fingerpicking of “Moon,” the angular blues rush of “Crawling” and the ultra-folksy standout, “Gun In The Cradle,” featuring a perfect harmonica solo and tambourine.

One thing that’s interesting to note is even though Ochs mixes instrumentation on his songs well, he sounds much more at home when the arrangement is at its most simplistic (i.e. just his acoustic). The album’s final three tracks all lack the electric guitars and drums that populated earlier songs, and they’re some of the strongest on the album.

The only time Ochs will run into trouble is if he starts getting too repetitive. The song “It’s All Too Bright,” though not a bad song on its own, was pretty forgettable when compared to the rest of Doom Folk’s strong material. Luckily, that’s the last time the album teeters into a disappointing territory. Is ‘doom folk’ going to catch on as a mainstream genre? Nobody knows. But did Ochs do it well, and is it worth listening to? Absolutely.