4 out of 5

Label: Monitor

Produced by: John Golden (mastered by)

Well, obviously Oxes traveled to the future, read my review of their first album, then traveled back to 2002 to put their reaction to my criticisms into play, resulting in the significantly evolved sophomore release Oxxxes, which was also accompanied by an amusing faux-controversy regarding xxxplicit cover art.

There are two important shifts here: one being that Oxxxes sounds like an album, and not just a collected set of tracks of dudes rocking, and second that, despite the humor backing up the artwork and song titles, there’s a thread of emotion pumping through conclusions of several songs, allowing for a sense of maturity as well.  The group still plays around a bit, stopping and stuttering over breaking drum beats and fractured guitars (and shattering dishware, a la Don Caballero…), but this is buffered by some excellently realized mini-epics, that take full advantage of their dual guitars and ace drumwork to layer on some impressive compositions.  The disc even ends with an effective build and release in the eight minute plus Russia Is Here, but this time the memorable moments are the rule, not the exception.

Because there’s a fair amount of instrumental rock influences here – Don Cab, mentioned above, being the main one that comes to mind – Oxes can still sound a bit faceless, but this release was a gigantic step toward rectifying that, coming in to their own sound and likely influencing plenty of others.