Proving that career paths often never work out quite the way you imagine, Finnish experimentalists …And Oceans was founded by the two guitarists of Death Metallers Festerday and began life as a fairly straight-forward Black Metal act. After metamorphosing into something more akin to Black Cybermetal on their 2001 album A.M.G.O.D., in 2005, the band changed their name to Havoc Unit before reverting to Festerday a few years later. A band that continues to exist despite the reformation of …And Oceans in 2019.
So, with a history of Electronica, Black, Death, Industrial, and Symphonic Metal, it comes as no surprise to find that comeback album The Regeneration Itinerary (Season of Mist) contains a whole lot of everything and a little bit more.
“Inertiae” begins with swirling sci-fi synths from Antti Simonen before drum blasts, measured Black Metal riffs, and some absolutely feral vocals from Mathias Lillmåns catapult the opener into a primal rage before veering off wildly into otherworldly orchestrations and electronic dance beats.
“Förnyelse i Tre Akter” is unadulterated skull-pounding ferocity while the Black Metal brutality of “Chromium Lungs, Bronze Optics” comes with big techno beats, cinematic backing, and a great melodic outro. “The Form And The Formless” follows next and clearly requires some form of psychiatric assistance as it goes from blastbeats to 8-bit computer game music and back again.
“Prophetical Mercury Implement” is seven minutes of sonic violence while the waking nightmare of “The Fire In Which We Burn” allows bass player Pyry Hanski to shine in the middle of a blizzard of double kicks and synths. Drummer and overexcited metronome Kauko Kuusisalo opens “The Ways Of Sulphur,” the song’s vicious riffs receiving a jaunty, almost folky Eurovision edge amidst the carnage.
“I Am Coin, I Am Two” crawls, sprints, pummels and smashes anything stupid enough to get in its way before “Towards The Absence Of Light” displays a muscular Dimmu Borgir edge before going full throttle, the venomous cut supported by some tremendous guitar work from founding members Teemu Saari and Timo Kontio. Everything between the keyboard intro and outro on closer “The Terminal Filter” launches subtlety out of the window, but it’s not over yet as the record concludes with two bonus tracks. “Copper Blood, Titanium Scars” is a total wall of noise while “The Discord Static” is Cybermetal insanity as huge techno beats combine with Satyricon riffs, bouncy Finnish folk and flirtatious futuristic keys.
Just imagine an inescapable Black Metal void suddenly filled with brightly coloured Techno, Folk, Dance, Classical, and Industrial Noise. All dispensed with a massive sci-fi groove not too dissimilar to electric space disco era Samael, and you’ll have an idea how to approach The Regeneration Itinerary. Bang your head or open a box of glow sticks. Or both. Your choice.
Buy the album here:
https://andoceans.bandcamp.com/album/the-regeneration-itinerary
8 / 10
GARY ALCOCK
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