Ola Englund - The Chug Project, Vol. 3 (ALBUM REVIEW)
Release date: June 14th, 2024
There’s definitely a certain bias from my part when it comes to music, specifically metal music, made by YouTubers or musical content creators in general: unless it is music released under the name of a band I’ve already known of which said YouTuber is a member of, I generally don’t pay much attention to it. Take for instance, I watch Andrew Baena and/or Rabea Massaad but it doesn’t equate to me actively listening to music from Carcosa and/or Toska, respectively. And oftentimes, the flip case is true too: of course I do listen to Trivium, but I don’t really turn my mind to Matt Heafy’s YouTube channel.
The worst part of this avoidance is that, a substantial amount of the music put out by content creators are objectively good - once I’ve brought myself round and actually given it a listen. So, in essence, this absurd mentality prompted me to miss out on a lot of good music that I otherwise could’ve enjoyed.
Anyhow, perhaps said strange tendency of aversion stems from the fact I know them in the sense that they’re “video content creators” first and “musicians” second (and vice versa), hence there might be a feeling of alienation when I’m met by a certain output that isn’t their “usual” or “familiar”, per se. A rather inhuman, borderline inexplicable form of algorithmically indoctrinated bias, but it’s one that people may find frighteningly common, if not relatable even.
Now, Ola Englund is more or less another figure to fall victim to my “sorting algorithm syndrome” - as I henceforth will call it: I have followed his channel since 2016, and even though I do - in a conscious manner - listen to the stuffs he has made with The Haunted as well as his own band Feared, I subconsciously avoided the music from his eponymous solo musical project, which was conceived relatively later to all his other works.
Until very recently.
Compared to his first two full length albums, Master of the Universe and Starzinger - both being prominently progressive in the vein of Dream Theater, a major influence for Ola Englund - The Chug Project albums are considerably more simplistic in their songwriting and structure: being an outlet to flesh out riffs used in the videos, most notably the Sunday With Ola series. Having said that, and having taken into consideration the premise of The Chug Project, one can argue what is said about Volume 3 of this album run can be applied to the two previous volumes, too. Which, by all means, I agree.
When albums are made for such a specific purpose, there is a very apparent risk of loss in cohesiveness within each track where one section or riff may not thematically connect with another or with the whole composition. Ola Englund, whose ability to create memorable, whether high-octane or crushing but overall energetic riffs is among the undisputed within the modern metal spectrum, also showcases his arrangement finesse in The Chug Project: building each song on one or two solid motifs, with the solos firmly adhering to said motifs.
The result is without a doubt formulaic and linear, but the goal to develop singular, seeming disjointed riffs into proper and decent songs is achieved nonetheless. And because of the goal mentioned above, the runtime of separate tracks are consistently kept within the contextually reasonable range - around 2-and-a-half minutes to barely grating the 4-minute mark. Because of this, none ever sounds dragging nor tiring, even with the longest two within Volume 3: “Hellbomb” and the re-re-re-recorded “Unknown Title Song” (which has once been christened as the “Devil in White” and featured in the 2013 Feared album “Furor Incarnatus”).
It is evident that The Chug Project, specifically in this case Volume 3 has done its job as a riff exhibition more than well enough. But is it a good album, notwithstanding the somewhat obvious fact? The answer is “yes”: The Chug Project is indeed a solid instrumental heavy metal album series, with banging, testosterone-charged riffage being rich and aplenty.
Recommended as background music for gaming, studying, working out, and all else.