Artist: Oceano
Album: Depths
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Earache

Attention: You are now entering the twin cities of Breakdown and Blast Beat. Oceano, the newest heavy band on Earache Records, are digging deep into the belly of the metal demons for their newest release, Depths.

Kicking things off simplistically, yet intriguingly is, “Descent.” This nothing more than a simply breakdown chugs that slowly fades and gets deeper and deeper, but it fits the title and takes your mind lower and lower into the caves upon which it seems an album this dark would be created. “Inhuman Affliction” then sets up the rest of the record with quick/slow tempos colliding over double bass, chugs, and growls. It’s nothing we haven’t heard before, but dear Lord it is deep. “Samael The Destroyer,” has a lot to offer in terms of music. The introduction grabs you quickly with seemingly inhuman drumming that only gets faster and more intense throughout. This couple with swirling guitar work make it a memorable moment in a collection of heavy sounds that tend to get repetitive. Once again, two tracks later, we’re given something actually memorable with the guitar work that takes us into, “Disgust For Your Kind.” It’s as if the guitars are dying while the drums pound each and every breath out of them. It’s deep, it’s evil, it’s compelling.

As the record moves along, we’re faced with an all too common realization in this genre – there’s another half of a record to go. I’ll never claim to be one for the lowest of guttural growls and anything over 20 minutes with this style just begins to get dull and boring for me. “District of Misery,” and, “With Legions,” do stand out amazingly on the musical end of the spectrum, but as soon as the vocals come in, I check out. If everything on the record can have such diversity, why does every vocal line seem to repeat the line before it? Luckily, the closer, “Orificial Execution,” saves the album some with some nice spoken word underlays and a throwback hardcore sound, but once again, it begins to get repetitive just after 90 sec. in.

In the end, I guess I’m just not the crowd for this type of music. I consider myself a huge fan of anything heavy, but this just feels so repetitive and the ridiculous amount of tracks and lengths just feels like it drones on after a certain point. I’m sure there’s something to be said about the music and lyrics, but to me, the music is the only leg this group has to stand on and hopefully it’s strong enough to carry them through.

Score: 5/10

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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