Ocean hills are a five piece American rock band who have just come on to the scene this year (2020). The band is made up of Zoltan Teglas who was the lead singer of Ignite for 25 years along with Peter Lukacs on lead guitar, Daniel Szebenyi on keyboards and bass, Reinder Oldenburger on rhythm guitar and an unknown on drums. To be honest I haven't heard anything by Ignite but it is clear that they were quite successful and have given Ocean Hills a bit of jump start in their career. OH signed a worldwide record deal with German label AFM records back in April. I can't even find any information about the other members of the band at time of writing in terms of their history.
Due to this jump start, unlike a lot of bands, I found Ocean Hills pretty early in their journey as single "Death or Liberty" was on my release radar playlist on Spotify back in April/May. That and other single "A seperate peace" were the first two singles released by the band and already they were on rotation across playlists not only Spotify but other streaming services too. They really grabbed my attention. I thought the lead singers voice was amazing, as was the kind of alt rock vibe they were creating.
I think the album "Santa Monica" was actually due to come out earlier in the year but got put back to end of November due to covid. This is a great album full of pure rock anthems and great melodies. One thing I like most about the songs is that most contain these great guitar solos. They are not overly complex I would say but they sound amazing due to the cleaness and pureness of the sound thats made from them. "Like a Lady" is probably my favourite for this. This solo is a bit longer and in fact stretches out the track to just under 6 minutes but it feels like 4. The thing that makes Ocean Hills good is that the guitar sound and Zoli's voice go hand in hand.
They do have a deluxe edition of the album but I would say its not really worth it. This is because they have just made extended editions of 3 of their hit tracks but although one of the tracks has been extended by 1 min 20 secs. Another is only extended by 20 seconds and the other by 2 seconds! And they are trying to get people to pay more for this?
Overall though lets focus on the music. Afterall this is available to stream. This is a really good debut album and I can see why they have managed to get themselves on so many prominent playlists across various streaming services so early in their journey. Zoli the singer may have given them the platform to get out there but they have some cracking muscians to show this is just not a one man band. I will be looking out for this band in the future to see how they grow for sure.
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