supraliminal's Full Review: Allotropic/Metamorphic Genesis of... by And Oceans
First of all I'd like to snare any black/extreme metal lover reading this who has read other reviews on this album and stayed away from it due to others describing it as techno-flavored metal. This brings to my mind Kovenant's Animatronics album, and though I myself love that album, I have to be in an electronic kind of mood so spin the disc, I don't feen for it when I want some crushing metal or anything, so I can understand how some people don't care for Kovenant. To all those people (and metal lovers everywhere) I say LISTEN TO THIS..... And Oceans has not gone synthetic, they've just done it right!
The element of the music here that makes for a techno flavor is simply the keyboards. The haunting funeral dirge type keyboards that are so prevalent in black metal have been replaced by european dance/techno like sounds. The drums have not been messed with, no machines here, just a barrage of blast beats and double bass rolls. The guitar has not been given an airy/industrial type distortion at all. It's good old And Oceans with new keyboards. The boards do not come close to dominating the guitars either... anyone expecting another album like Animatronics get ready for a beat down. The vocals differ a bit from earlier And Oceans albums, but again there is nothing synthetic about them.... if anything they are only deeper and more death like than the usual higher end black metal vocals.
The album kicks of with Intelligence Is Sexy, one of my favorite cuts. After 25 seconds or so of a simple intro riff, the keyboards make their entrance in a swirling nightclub fashion, and by the time the guitars join the attack again it's clear the guitars are the instrument in charge. A blast beat laden verse gives way to a chorus complete with club like echoing boards that make an immediate impression... right off the bat And Oceans lets you know that finally someone has integrated a techno sound with metal the right way! In this song (and throughout the album in general), And Oceans doesn't shy from dropping the boards and just using an all out blackened attack, they seem to know just when the new sound would be annoying and unnecessary.
The next piece of aural candy is White Synthetic Noise, which despite the title is nearly devoid of any synthetic or new techno sound. The track is a bit "mellow" for And Oceans, having more of a heavy thrash sound than the usual black... not until more than three minutes into the song does any techno element enter. It appears in the form of a dreamy break with synth sounds and a single bass count that are quickly blast beaten into oblivion.
Song three is my favorite, Tears Have No Name. The song starts out with a very techno sounding keyboard rhythm, which helps create a very grooving verse, then they step aside completely for the raging chorus to get a clean shot on your senses. The breaks here kind of make me think of a very heavy Dark Tranquility.
Song four (Espirit de Corps) is a strange tune that is typical of a lot And Oceans has done.... makes me say "I'm not sure what THAT was, but it was pretty good!"... blast beat soup with raging guitar (ie standard black sounding)launching all of the sudden into a very military sounding chorus.... I can see the marine corps getting even crazier if they adopted this song as their own. No new techno effects. Yes in case you are worried about the label techno and are still reading this, I swear they use the new sound perfectly and in moderation.
Odius And Devious is the next offering, and it continues the raging pure black sound right up until the first break, where a simple spacey synth piece pops in and out to compliment the rhythm, always quiet enough to serve as catchy unique atmosphere.
Of Devilish Tongues is a more thrash sounding song, giving way about three minutes in to a cool break that sort of reminds of the spaciness of newer Amorphis, then abruptly launching back into a thrashy attack so abruptly you'll probably think a new song entirely has started if you aren't keeping an eye on the cd timer.
Song seven, entitled Postfuturistika, is one of the songs with more techno flavored boards, only the guitars are so freakin loud that it took me three listens or so just for my ears to grasp what was going on, and another couple to notice how well it all worked together.
Tba In A Silver Box is next up, and this one is an instrumental. Although I like the track, I do kind of wonder at the decision to have an instrumental right before the purely techno album closer..... in any case, they didn't seize the opportunity to show off instrumental expertise or anything, they just threw in a midpaced epic instrumental to give you opportunity to nurse the wounds inflicted on the seven previous tracks.
Like I said, the album closes with a purely techno (all synths and drum machines) track called New Model World, which is bad in that I don't really want an And Oceans album to end on that note (especially not this work of art), but I suppose it could have been worse.... I'll take the use of techno boards in moderation in exchange for one entirely techno song as opposed to several songs that are a tad too techno. Anyhow, although I can actually listen to the whole track all the way through, I love to dance to techno but hate to listen to it and as such I could care less about this track.
I would recommend this album to any and all metal listeners with an open mind and a passion for intelligent metal... it's not the deepest atmosphere I've ever heard, and I've heard bands with more things going on at once, nevertheless this album is a challenging one that takes a few listens to fully absorb. Those who hated Kovenant should check this out as should those who loved them. I'm sure fans of other albums by And Oceans will be very pleased with this outing. Black Metal and Dark Tranquility lovers in particular should also try this album out.
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