4 out of 5

Label: Sub Rosa

Produced by: Michael Fossenkemper (mastered by)

You get two credits here – Doug Scharin on drums; Joe Goldring on guitar – but you’d swear you’re listening to a whole bunch more than that.

One part Scharin’s dub and music world influence, mixed with Goldring’s penchant for low-key looping and tribal beats, OOW takes that as a backbone to add a lot of muscle: head-bobbing beats influenced by hip-hop; grooving rhythms; occasional forays into breakouts of riffage.  Less wandering and jammy than almost anything Scharin has done individually, or Goldring’s later Captain Onboard, the album kicks off in ‘familiar’ territory (for Scharin listeners) of esoteric instruments, warming up for a rhythm, to then launch forward into an instantly surging beat that keeps pace for 8 minutes or so.  The next track – amusingly titled ‘Incubate a Sausage’ – amps up the guitar, almost edging toward something that plays toward modern rock, albeit with 18 layers of intense drumming.  The title track appears to peel back into more experimental, contemplative territory, but proves to be another build-up to a perfectly balanced overload of beats and loops.  ‘Ask Death’ is a short, minimal blast of drumwork, which leads in to the near 18-minute sectioned ‘Meta Stigmata.’  Portions of this track are exciting as anything else on the disc, but it’s also where we’re given over to some jam / improvised-sounding stuff, which is welcomed in general, but slows down the otherwise forward trajectory of the album.  A short coda closes things out.

On repeat listens, Meta Stigmata shapes up as you become more familiar with its ebbs and flows, but much of the album works – and impresses – right away.  Joe and Doug would happily reteam later for the slightly renamed Out In Worship.