After writing and recording ONKOS’ self-titled album in 2019, Robert Woods-LaDue put together a 13-piece band to perform the material live… but after a handful of shows, the world was hit by Covid-19. While the band was unable to play for the foreseeable future, these performances inspired new directions which vastly expanded the ONKOS sound. During the lockdown in 2020, Woods-LaDue built new drums specifically for this music and wrote material to explore the dynamic capabilities of the live band. Lyrically, “Vascular Labyrinth” branches away from the debut album’s strict thematic focus on cancer, but retains the same hallucinogenic, abstract and surrealist qualities. With the inclusion of new percussion instruments, a horn section, vibraphone, marimba, keyboards, and a second vocalist, ONKOS reaches into strange new territories. From sparse, improvisatory pieces for solo acoustic guitars (“Awaken To The Sunset”, “Goodbye To The Light”) to death-metal-oriented power-chord riffs (“Bethel”) and syncopated rhythms on a collision course with dissonant melodies and brutal growls (“Furoncles Bitumineux”, “Lux’Lac”), ONKOS’ “Vascular Labyrinth” is a triumphal journey through the infinite possibilities offered by a unique artistic vision, with one foot in metal, one in avant-jazz… and one in the musical elsewhere.
