Gosh, how shall I start this review? Ok, first of all I can state that OSH definitely don’ t play the kind of music I like. But that’s beside the point I guess. The thing is just that it’s hard to stay objective and informative in front of such a background. Anyway, I’ll try my best. First of all I think the general motivation of OSH is cool – they combine different musical elements such as Grind, Rock, Metal, world-music ingredients, etc. I kind of enjoyed listening to "Red Universe" because it’s a bit like experiencing the band performing live (although I think I wouldn’t be keen to visit any of their performances) – a very raw production indeed. OSH really declare it their aim to create progressive Grind / Rock, notwithstanding musical conventions and norms. As mentioned above, I approve of such ideals. But in this particular case I must say that although the motive is laudable, I don’t really like the result. I want to explain this statement: I don’t think that my evaluation of the present release is influenced negatively in any way by my personal taste that is not met by this band. No, I am convinced that it has something to do with the fashion in which OSH compose and realise their music. The band info claims that the production can compete with international releases – definitely not! The sound is kind of thin and absolutely not what I think is a professional achievement (doesn’t really matter that the producer has worked for Xavier Naidoo and other artists before. I would have throttled this guy for such a mediocre result). The instruments are partly out of tune, the guitars have an abominable sound, the bass-sound is not well-edited, and so on and so forth. The songs are supposed to be innovative. OSH incorporate some percussive elements in their compositions, the vocals are varied a bit, meaning that the singer jells his lungs out in the one song and growls in the other. I have this latent feeling that OSH don’t really know what kind of music they want to play and therefore label their music as progressive. There are just too many bits and pieces, too many starts, too many quotations out of all kinds of musical fields. The whole oeuvre kind of seems utterly unelaborated and heterogeneous. Nevertheless some passages are quite cool. I like the bass-figures in ‘And Always The Deep Red Sea…’. Moreover, the vocal lines in ‘Threshold To An Embrace’ (the song I like best!) are not bad, either. But still I think this output contains so many deficits and imperfections that need to be worked on. This CD is far too spontaneous and arbitrary to take the band’s efforts seriously. OSH really caught my attention. Unfortunately in a negative way. I have experienced "Red Universe" as a curiosity. unfortunately as a disappointing one. Contact: www.osh-metal.de/