Ou, pronounced O, are a band based in China and their debut album, One, released on Inside Out, has been making a big splash in many online and traditional print outlets. The band consist of drummer Anthony Vanacore, who is an American residing in China and has played with a whole host of artists, guitarist Jing Zhang, bassist Chris Cui, and singer Lynn Wu, whose voice is simply remarkable and quite unlike anything I have heard for quite some time, if ever.

Reviewing One is another first for me and the site, never having reviewed any music from China before. This year, we have had some great music from around the globe and even though I am unable to provide readers with my usual sense of what I believe the lyrics to be about, that doesn’t matter. What does is the fact that music is really our universal language in a deeply troubled world, a ray of light able to shine upon us all. Quite frankly, if Messrs Xi, Putin, Johnson, Biden et al could take the trouble to listen to such global music, we might all have a far quieter life and more stable planet. This album talks to one in that universality, meaning that you do not need to know the meaning of every single word to get the sense of what is going on.

Ou’s music has been described, and categorised, as progressive metal, but to these ears there is far more to them and this album than that. This is a vibrant album, full of joyous noise and life. At times, it is very heavy, but in other places, the influences of the likes of Kate Bush or Sigur Ros are apparent, but it must be emphasised that this is, throughout, wholly unique, and quite unlike anything you will have heard before.

The heavy is apparent from the opening note of Travel, and a rush of noise hits you straightaway. One minute in, we get a nice blend of chugging bass and some interesting electronic effects before Wu, as she does everywhere in this album, provides us with a vocal which is ethereal and quite lovely above the industrial patterns and riffs below her. Later, we have some wails and screams from her, before some beautiful chanting above more strange effects, so pretty much the full range of vocal emotion in six minutes. This is an impressive opening track.

Farewell is a more “radio-friendly” piece of music at its heart. The deceptively gentle opening does give way to a far heavier burst and forceful singing, and there are some good synth bursts in here as well. The ending is climactic, to say the least.

I love Mountain, right from the opening keyboard burst. This track is, to me, very much influenced by Bush. My own impression from the piece is that it is very whimsical in nature, even taking into consideration the incredibly heavy burst midway through. The rhythm section is deeply impressive in this track, keeping a thunderous time, somewhat akin to the adrenaline rush of climbing a rock face. You can view the video for this below.

Ghost follows, and the opening is a thoughtful keyboard passage and restrained guitar setting an appropriate mood for us in keeping with the title, and it is here that you know there is far more to this band and this album that a rather simple descriptor of “progressive metal”. There are some beautiful noises and chords created on this song, including some impossibly high notes by the singer alongside weaving and haunting keyboard chords which evoke the spiritual side of us. This track is a personal favourite of 2022 and lives in the memory long after the simple closing chords fade out.

Euphoria follows this, and the opening segment is instantly lighter, a breath of spring following a cold winter event. The bass and drum are deceptively simple in their quick beat, and the noises and effects overlaying this are otherworldly. Voice and synths combine to create a joyous sense above the continuous riffing below. At some three minutes in, the mood changes quite dramatically with a single synth effect which belies the title of the piece. It is menacing in its singularity, and Wu is similar in her vocal alongside the synthesised effects. Is this the feeling following a great victory, what an athlete has after the heroic efforts of winning a title race or a trophy? That sense of rising above the body into the spiritual? Indeed, spiritual is probably the best word one can utilise in describing this very intense song, which is the longest on the album at 7:19.

Prejudice takes us back to heavier territory. It is frenetic with some very impressive guitar especially, and the drum & bass time signatures are complex. This strikes me as being as angry as the album gets in its riffs and mood, and the feel of it is expressed in a fine way by the vocals. The closing half a minute or so changes a bit into a rather jazzy passage which is as interesting as it is unexpected.

The final two tracks are Dark and then Light, so one would expect here some blackness followed by an escape into the brightness and wonder of life.

Dark is only one second shorter than Euphoria and the opening riffs do indeed provide us with a sense of doom in their intensity. Wu’s opening vocals are staggering in their power, the screams again reaching heights that few can even dream of matching. When the track grows into its main segment, the rhythm section is the thumping lead for Wu to sing over. This repetitive beat does give a feeling of impending disaster, and you await it with a little bit of trepidation, especially as the volume grows and grows. Just short of five minutes in, we get a very impressive bass solo accompanied by some effects before Wu provides a brief respite and then the long-promised disaster hits you with perhaps the heaviest sequence of music heard this year. Cui absolutely shines on this very dark and very heavy in parts piece of music.

And so, to Light, the album closer, and again the stark shift in volume is noticeable. The opening keyboard chords are not, as might be expected, sunny and pretty. They are, instead, black key led and the opposite of what we expect, which provides for a decent surprise. Wu’s vocals are fragile and delicate accompanying this. I have no idea, but the impression I get from this track is that, more than any other on the album, it exemplifies the stark cover of our heroine looking at us bathed in a circle of light, in perhaps a different quantum dimension. This piece is most certainly not “beautiful”, it is minimalist and very disturbingly so.

So, what to make of Chinese progressive rock? One is a very strong and enjoyable debut from a band I intend to follow very closely as they move forward. See their website at https://www.outheband.com/ and you can buy the album at https://www.insideoutshop.de/Item/OU_-_one_-Ltd-_CD_Edition-/16946