{"id":1504,"date":"2017-07-26T14:00:37","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T14:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-oceans-ate-alaska-hikari\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T22:15:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T21:15:27","slug":"review-oceans-ate-alaska-hikari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-oceans-ate-alaska-hikari\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Oceans Ate Alaska &#8211;\u00a0Hikari"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/8eb5547a69790d48d650aed742f249d1\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so5_r48_1280.jpg\" width=\"250em\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p>Earlier this year, Birmingham metalcore types <b>Oceans Ate Alaska<\/b> announced the identity of their new vocalist, Jake Noakes, following the departure of previous singer James Harrison. As is the case with most bands of <b>OAA<\/b>&rsquo;s ilk, this doesn&rsquo;t change too much of their musical DNA. Noakes&rsquo; cleans are less distinctively British than Harrison&rsquo;s, but on their second album, <i>&lsquo;Hikari&rsquo;<\/i>, <b>OAA<\/b> still purvey the same kind of melodic and technical metalcore that made up most of 2015&rsquo;s <i>&#8216;Lost Isles&rsquo;<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p><b>OAA<\/b>&rsquo;s MO consists of heavy, technical mathcore-esque riffing being paired with soaring vocal melody and metalcore staples like beatdowns. Often the tracks on <i>&#8216;Hikari&rsquo;<\/i> jump through these elements in a disjointed way. This is intentionally jarring and works for the most part \u2013 making even a shoehorned acoustic passage at the end of <i>&#8216;Covert&rsquo;<\/i> seem natural. In other places, they stick with one element per song; vying for early Dillinger Escape Plan-inspired insanity on <i>&#8216;Deadweight&rsquo;<\/i>, or traditional melodic metalcore on the title track and <i>&#8216;Birth&rsquo;<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p><!-- more --><\/p>\n<p><b>OAA<\/b> try to keep things interesting, and <i>&#8216;Hikari&rsquo;<\/i> has the air of being more ambitious than the average metalcore record. The band&rsquo;s progressive and mathcore influences are abundantly clear, but songs like <i>&#8216;Hansha&rsquo;<\/i> show a penchant for softness, with more expansive guitar work than seen elsewhere on the album. Closer <i>&#8216;Escapist&rsquo;<\/i> makes use of what sounds like a mandolin in its outro, which is a novel idea. <\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately not all left-field ideas work \u2013 the nu-metal style rapping on <i>&#8216;Entrapment&rsquo;<\/i> is a minor flaw on an album that&rsquo;s clearly attempting to be progressive.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the vocalist change, <i>&#8216;Hikari&rsquo;<\/i> is more of the same from <b>Oceans Ate Alaska<\/b>. This isn&rsquo;t necessarily a bad thing, as their existing formula is just interesting enough for them to keep their head above the water of the saturated generic metalcore sea.<\/p>\n<p>3\/5<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8216;Hikari&rsquo;<\/i> by <b>Oceans Ate Alaska<\/b> is released on 28th July on <b>Fearless Records<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Oceans Ate Alaska<\/b> links: <a href=\"http:\/\/oceansatealaska.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/oceansatealaska\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/oceansatealaska\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Alan Cunningham (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/funeral_polis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@funeral_polis<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier this year, Birmingham metalcore types Oceans Ate Alaska announced the identity of their new vocalist, Jake Noakes, following the departure of previous singer James Harrison. As is the case with most bands of OAA&rsquo;s ilk, this doesn&rsquo;t change too much of their musical DNA. Noakes&rsquo; cleans are less distinctively British than Harrison&rsquo;s, but on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[39,1330,1312],"class_list":["post-1504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-fearless-records","tag-hikari","tag-oceans-ate-alaska"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review: Oceans Ate Alaska -\u00a0Hikari - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Earlier this year, Birmingham metalcore types Oceans Ate Alaska announced the identity of their new vocalist, Jake Noakes, following the departure of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: Oceans Ate Alaska -\u00a0Hikari - Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Earlier this year, Birmingham metalcore types Oceans Ate Alaska announced the identity of their new vocalist, Jake Noakes, following the departure of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-oceans-ate-alaska-hikari\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-26T14:00:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-11T21:15:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/8eb5547a69790d48d650aed742f249d1\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so5_r48_1280.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Review: Oceans Ate Alaska -\u00a0Hikari - Already Heard Staging","description":"Earlier this year, Birmingham metalcore types Oceans Ate Alaska announced the identity of their new vocalist, Jake Noakes, following the departure of","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Review: Oceans Ate Alaska -\u00a0Hikari - Already Heard Staging","og_description":"Earlier this year, Birmingham metalcore types Oceans Ate Alaska announced the identity of their new vocalist, Jake Noakes, following the departure of","og_url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-oceans-ate-alaska-hikari\/","og_site_name":"Already Heard Staging","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","article_published_time":"2017-07-26T14:00:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-06-11T21:15:27+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/8eb5547a69790d48d650aed742f249d1\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so5_r48_1280.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_site":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-oceans-ate-alaska-hikari\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-oceans-ate-alaska-hikari\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/508ed29771f8c5b56fdcf4695f22a2a3"},"headline":"Review: Oceans Ate Alaska &#8211;\u00a0Hikari","datePublished":"2017-07-26T14:00:37+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-11T21:15:27+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-oceans-ate-alaska-hikari\/"},"wordCount":358,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-oceans-ate-alaska-hikari\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/8eb5547a69790d48d650aed742f249d1\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so5_r48_1280.jpg","keywords":["Fearless Records","Hikari","Oceans Ate Alaska"],"articleSection":["Album Reviews"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-oceans-ate-alaska-hikari\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-oceans-ate-alaska-hikari\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-oceans-ate-alaska-hikari\/","name":"Review: Oceans Ate Alaska -\u00a0Hikari - Already Heard Staging","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-oceans-ate-alaska-hikari\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-oceans-ate-alaska-hikari\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/8eb5547a69790d48d650aed742f249d1\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so5_r48_1280.jpg","datePublished":"2017-07-26T14:00:37+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-11T21:15:27+00:00","description":"Earlier this year, Birmingham metalcore types Oceans Ate Alaska announced the identity of their new vocalist, Jake Noakes, following the departure of","inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-oceans-ate-alaska-hikari\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-oceans-ate-alaska-hikari\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/8eb5547a69790d48d650aed742f249d1\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so5_r48_1280.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/8eb5547a69790d48d650aed742f249d1\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so5_r48_1280.jpg"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","name":"Already Heard Staging","description":"Covering the best in alternative music as best as we can","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization","name":"Already Heard","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","width":500,"height":500,"caption":"Already Heard"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","https:\/\/x.com\/alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alreadyheard\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/already-heard\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/AlreadyHeardMusic","https:\/\/tiktok.com\/@alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@alreadyheard"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/508ed29771f8c5b56fdcf4695f22a2a3","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcf4d491c971b5225a3e3c450225c0ae6ba0217be8f6ecb776a9506d4aa5595f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcf4d491c971b5225a3e3c450225c0ae6ba0217be8f6ecb776a9506d4aa5595f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcf4d491c971b5225a3e3c450225c0ae6ba0217be8f6ecb776a9506d4aa5595f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}