Oceano are an American Deathcore band from Chicago, forming in 2006 and signed to Earache Records, this is their 3rd album ‘Incisions’.
Oceano formed in the height of when Deathcore was becoming the next big thing in extreme music, this was around when other bands that pioneered the genre (such as Suicide Silence and Whitechapel) were creating albums and gaining their foundations.
Around the time when Oceano’s first album was released, ‘Depths’ was a massive hit in the Deathcore community, filled to the brim with breakdowns, chugging guitars, and guttural vocals, this style became the norm of Deathcore with bands consistently trying to outdo each other and be more ‘brutal’ than the last.
Fast-forward 5 years and Deathcore is washed out with former big hitters trying to discard the Deathcore label and incorporate newer elements into their music. There has been a resurgent of Deathcore (see: Thy Art is Murder, Fit for an Autopsy) that has refreshed the genre by playing technical death metal which still has a deep focus on being vicious with breakdowns and bass drops but also combining extremely technical musicianship. Then we have ‘Incisions’ which for the most part is a rehashed watered down version of Depths’.
Gone are the crushing breakdowns, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but considering the fashion of what this band’s claim to fame is, its completely missing the target. The production has been overhauled and no longer sounds muddy and thick which works against the murkiness theme that the album tries to create. Used throughout there are clean spoken vocals (reminiscing of Corey Taylor in Slipknot’s ‘Iowa’) that try to showcase a unnerving/creepy vibe but because they are used so frequently they lose their effect fast.
However with all the negativity said, this album does have some positives, the vocals are still as monstrous as ever and have a distinct sound compared to a lot of vocalists in this genre. The breakdowns that are present are still beefy and feel heavy such as at the end in the song ‘Slow Murder’ and in the more experimental songs such as ‘Internal War’ and ‘Self Exploited Whore’ the band’s stronger elements really shine through.
Appreciating what Oceano have tried to accomplish with ‘Incisions’ only a couple of songs really captured any sort of attention from myself before getting bored. Overall ‘Incisions’ has few high points scattered throughout a disjointed cut and paste job, which has removed their strongest attributes and replaced these with weaker counterparts.
2.5/5
‘Incisions’ by Oceano is out now on Earache Records.
Oceano links: Facebook|Twitter|Website
Words by Grant Fullick.
