ÖfÖ AM – OCTOPUS VULGARIS

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · April 18, 2025

ÖfÖ Am is heavy riff rocking instrumental three-piece from Montpellier, France. The lineup consists of Antoine Morières on guitars and keys, Jonathan Barthelémy on drums, and Géraud Jonquet on bass. The band has released a debut 10”- 2009’s ÖfÖ Am 10″, a split EP– 2010’s Split with Karma To Burn, 2011’s The Beast Within, a split EP– 2014’s Split with Lahius, 2018’s Tales From Outerspace : An Octaman’s Odyssey, and their latest album, 2025’s Octopus Vulgaris. Octopus Vulgaris was released on March 28th 2025 on Lost Pilgrims Records. It contains eleven tracks at thirty four minutes long.

ÖfÖ Am has a great sound that incorporates hard rocking rhythms with some heavy psych mixed in there. Their songs are mostly heavy with progressive elements intertwined within each passage. “Space/ Mutation” kicks everything off in a fantastic fury of hard driving riffs that are integrated with guitar melodies that express and expand throughout the song. Mixing in textures of keyboards with the riff stomping frenzy, ÖfÖ Am changes the rhythms often and utilize illustrative guitar leads and busy percussion to create an enthralling experience throughout this recording. As the title track “Octopus Vulgaris” illustrates, there’s a heavy and airy combination that is very intriguing and exciting to listen to. The fuzzy bass guitar mingled with the heavy guitar riffs and progressive leads, with the bashing drums are a perfect match. “Volcano” begins with some trippy synth sounds that erupt into a menacing riff rocking adventure. The band are super tight together and execute speedy riffage with heavy guitar chugging rhythms in a snap. They almost have a jazz style flow to these compositions and encapsulates a tornado of different sounds and moods within their music.

The fourth track, “Children In The Mud” has a pounding percussive cadence that holds the dynamic guitar leads and rhythms in conjunction to one another. The band are really jamming in unison, leaving the listener bedazzled at times, all the while keeping a steady flow in every song. “Vortex I” is a one minute interlude of just guitar strumming and ringing out the notes that falls directly into “Genetic Mutilation”. This song has a smooth groove that is separated by heavy clobbering riffs and spacy melodies of sound mutations. The psychedelic blanket of synth, drum pounding, and intricate leads really coalesce the music into an interesting and unique piece of musical art. “Doomed To Suffer” elicits a similar effect, with transforming rhythms piecing together a juxtaposition of sounds that ultimately lead to a beautiful collection of sonic bliss. ÖfÖ Am are clever in their ability to create such introspective and ingenious music with such grace and elegance. “Radioactive Cult” has an almost haunting and doomy feel that begins with discordant bass and pick slides. However, the music abruptly shifts into a hard driving and rocking procession of Karma To Burn style riffing. The musical dynamics are like an audio chameleon because the band keeps changing rhythms and tones in a blink of an eye. This song involves all kinds of shifts in these riffs but it never sounds out of context with the track itself. Amazing work and very clever delivery!

Another short interlude in “Vortex II” strums next, similar to the earlier one. I like how the band has placed these passages on the album. It almost gives the listener a reset to balance out the intricacies of the multiplexed music. The tenth track is called “We Want Dotsciler Dead!”. It’s another busy musical escapade of rhythms and sounds that spin the prog rock wheel once again. Very precise, splendid, and thrilling. Finally, Octopus Vulgaris ends with “Grand Finale”, a short minute and a half outro of orchestrated rock. A beautiful completion to such a magnificent and brilliant album. I am pleasantly enamored with ÖfÖ Am and their mind blowing music. These guys have a special talent for crafting such spellbinding instrumental rock that really takes you on a spiritual journey. The perfect combination of hard rock, heavy psych, and progressive and atmospheric sounds that are joined together to give the listener the opportunity to experience musical nirvana.