Reviews for Okular's releases
Regenerate
"A changing amalgam of straight-up barbaric death metal, prog-death metal, melodic death metal, and even – as you venture deeper into the album – elements from good old heavy metal and hard rock. It really is remarkable, from beginning to end!"
-No Clean Singing Link
"A journey of discovery. Terms like melodic or progressive death metal doesn't do the band justice. Okular is unique in its sound and style. "
- Arrow Lords of Metal, Netherlands (9/10) Link
"A powerful, technically sound work with the right dose of melody. Not limited to incessant brutality, as Okular uses a variety of song structures, making the listening always surprising and hard-hitting. Okular have managed to refine its style and make it more impactful than ever."
- No Dice Mage, France Link
"A unique prog variant of contemporary Death Metal. "
- Powermetal.de, Germany (8/10) Link
"A band in excellent shape, able to balance aggression and harmony and to launch into progressive digressions without boring the listener. Appreciated for its technical caliber, professionalism and original approach to composition."
- Metal Italia, Italy (7,5/10) Link
"It takes quite a while between each time I’m presented with technical death metal of such a solid calibre and with such great appeal and likability. "
- Norway Rock Magazine, Norway (4.5/6) Link
"A solid album. The guitar work in particular was strong and kept the album moving forward. The sprinkling in of clean guitars and vocals brought diversity to the table. "
- Metal-temple, international (7/10)Link
Sexforce
For those who love interesting death metal it is an absolute recommendation. Immaculately produced, it has little to no trouble nestling itself in between the biggest names of brutal death metal. They make technically challenging and brutal death metal but at the same time they somehow managed to become more accessible.
- Lords of metal 83/100
Another impressing effort from one of the most exciting bands Norway has to offer. Sounds refreshingly different to more or less anything out there But at the same time the material is sufficiently accessible to appeal to most fans of technical extreme metal.
- Arctic Metal 9/10 Link
A mightily impressive effort from Okular. Fans of acts like Obscura, Opeth and Meshuggah can’t go wrong here. An extremely powerful Production and technically outstanding musicianship to top it all off.
- Sea of Tranquillity Link
Okular are required listening for those who enjoy progressive death with dynamic songwriting ethics at hand. Accessible in certain songs and then very complex in others, but therein lies the appeal to Okular.
- The Metal Pit 8.5/10
An incredibly intelligent and at the same time eluding piece of work. Would’ve been an immediate classic had the music industry been an environment basing success on sheer musical quality.
- The Monolith 85%
- Metalwave, Italy (94%) Link
- Metal Temple, international (9/10) Link
- Queens Of Steel, Spain (8/10)
- Fatal Grind, Germany (9/10)
- Metal As Fuck, international (positive, no grading)
- Arte Mortifica Reviews (positive, no grading)
- Battle Helm (positive, no grading)
- Eternal Terror, Norway (4/6) Link
- Extreme Metal Zine (positive, no grading)
- Ghostcult mag, international (8,5/10) Link
- Heavymetal.no, Norway (7/10) Link
- Fobiazine, Czech (8/10) Link
Probiotic
Full of exciting elements. The quality is such that it measures up to bands like Obscura and Gojira.
- Rita Trondsgård, Scream Magazine (a Norwegian printed publication)
This might be the future of heavy and relentless Progressive Metal. Okular is Death Metal’s Nevermore mixed with Mercenary.
- Anders Peter Jørgensen, Voices From The Darkside
Interesting album!
- Martin Wickler, German Metal Hammer
Probiotic ranks among 2011s most impressive offerings of technical/progressive death metal.
- No Clean Singing
One of the most exciting and challenging extreme albums from Norway I have heard in a long time.
- Even Knutsen, Arctic Metal
An impressive debut. The production is powerful and clear, the playing excellent and the tunes are solid.
- Martin Kvam, Norway Rock Magazine
The technical aspect is never too technical or messy, the sound is perfect and the riffs are reminiscent of the terrain Death was operating in. But this is two-three times heavier than what Chuck Schuldiner created in his lifetime [...] Very focused arrangements, which is not easy to accomplish in this genre. Okular’s metal maintains a good flow even at high tempos. [...] “Brutal yet controlled vocals. Never too guttural or too screamy
- Yngve Jacobsen, editor of heavymetal.no
- Scream Magazine, printed Norwegian Magazine, December 2011, “Album of the Month” (Communal review with highest average score) and main review 5/6
- Metal Hammer Norway, printed magazine, 8/10
- Arctic Metal webzine, 9/10, review in Norwegian Link
- Heavymetal.no, webzine, 8/10, review in Norwegian
- Norway Rock Magazine, printed magazine, 4/6
- Østlendingen, newspaper, 5/6
- Moss Avis, newspaper,5/6
- Metal Norge, webzine, 7/10, review in Norwegian
- Metal Hammer Germany (printed Magazine) (5/7 total, 6/7 for songwriting and 5/7 for sound and entertainment value)
- Rock Hard (printed magazine), Germany (7/10, review in German) Link
- Death Metal Baboon (webzine), Netherland/international (9.5/10, review in English) Link
- Stormbringer (webzine), Austria (4.5/5, review in German) Link
- Pest Webzine, Romania (9,5/10, Review in English)
- This is not a scene (webzine), International (9,5/10, review in English)
- Imhotep (webzine), Norway/international (5,5/6, review in English)
- Soil Chronicles (webzine), France ((8,5/10, review in French) Link
- Extreminal (webzine), Turkey (9.5/10, review in Turkish) Link
- Metalwave (webzine), Italy (86/100, review in Italian) Link
- Lords of Metal (webzine), Netherland (81/100, review in English)
- Psychozine (webzine), Poland (4/5, review in Polish)
- Voices from the Darkside (webzine), german/international (no grading, but very positive. review in English) Link
- No Clean Singing (webzine), USA/international (no grading, but very positive. Review in English) Link
- Sea of Tranquility (webzine), USA/international (4/5, review in English) Link
- Metal Temple (Webzine), Greece/Israel/international (4/5, review in English) Link
- Metal.de (webzine), Germany (7/10, review in German) Link
- Metallized.it (webzine), Italy (82/100) Link
- Metalland (webzine), France (no grading, but very positive review. In French)
- Zware Metalen (webzine), Netherlands (80/100, review in Dutch) Link
- Metal Maniac (printed magazine), Italy (7,5/10, review in Italian)
- Revolution Music (webzine), Denmark (4,5/6, review in Danish)
- Ancient Spirit (webzine), Germany (10,5/12, review in German)
- Vaskarc (webzine), Hungary (8.9/19, Review in Hungarian)
- Metal Italia (webzine), Italy (7/10, review in Italian) Link
- Legacy Magazine (Printed magazine), Germany (10/15, review in German)
- Alternative Matter (webzine), International (No grading, but very positive. Review in English)
- Transit Magazine (printed magazine), Switzerland (No grading, positive review. In German)
- Brutalism (webzine), Netherlands/international (3/5, review in English) Link
- Über Rock (webzine), UK (no grading, very positive. Review in English) Link
- vswebzine, France (15/20, review in French) Link
- Metalized(printed magazine), Denmark (4/10, review in Danish)
- Metal Crypt (webzine), USA/International (2,5/5, review in English) Link
- Slavestate (webzine), Sweden (3/5, review in Swedish)