German metal band THE OKLAHOMA KID is set to release their energetic, heavy, genre-bending album "Tangerine Tragic" and it's without a doubt one of the most diverse and experimental metal releases of the year. For better or worse, this band isn't afraid to blend different sounds and genres to create their own unique sound. The first two songs "To Dance With Fire" and "Pale Tongue" are gritty, intense, and aggressive. It reminded me of listening to bands I really enjoy like MY TICKET HOME, FEED THE RHINO, and RAISED FIST and I felt immediately that this would be a fun album if this was the sound I was getting. The band is really good at coming up with catchy hooks and choruses as their first three songs make apparent. "A Velvet Feel" is a pretty emotional song, you can really feel the emotion in vocalist Tomm Brümmer's voice. They do an interesting thing at the end of this song, ending it with cool beats that - even though it's different from the rest of the song - still somehow fits the mood of the song.

The fourth song "Words Like Violence" threw me for a loop a bit and is the only song on the album I really couldn't get into. They use these moody pop music beats in it and it's like they pulled a BRING ME THE HORIZON changing up their sound significantly, but still keeping a little of the grittiness. You can tell the EDM influence on their album with songs like this and "Lost Purpose." What I really didn't like was at the end of "Words Like Violence" when this weird voice effect was used that sounded like a slowed down version of a chipmunks remix. I was worried the album was going to take a downward turn into this style when "Replaced" came on, because it started off kind of pop-y and tame, but then they returned to more of their heaviness. I do appreciate the emotion that I feel listening to this - you can feel the pain. You can tell they definitely start experimenting more with sound and beats and effects the longer this album plays. But they didn't disappoint; they continued with the sound I loved in the first two songs, too.

"Dye Black to Pink" has a really fun guitar solo. "Melt Into You" was a song I really enjoyed as it was the kind of high energy eardrum assault they started off with that pulled me in and made me want to keep listening. Lyrically, this band kind of reminds me of LINKIN PARK in that there's a lot of heavy, emotional, raw subject matter. Overall, I thought this was a pretty good album that had a unique sound and showed an effort to stand out from the crowd.