...And Oceans

You always have to have a little faith in any band who've eschewed their typical old school roots in hopes of creating something out of the ordinary. In this case, And Oceans used to be called Festerday and once played death metal. Something tells me they probably weren't very good at it. Then they discovered effects racks, synths, name changes (one guitarist is named 7even 11) and funny clothes, all of which looks like a promise to bring post-black metal kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Did all the changes make a difference or was it all for naught? Well, there are two things preventing this from being all it can be: 1) Dodheimsgard already do it; and 2) Dodheimsgard do it much better. There's an unparalleled lack of excitement that graces this collection of nine songs. Sure, the cover art and actual album title is compelling and a song title like "Intelligence is Sexy" forces the listener to theorise about the possibility that this just may be overflowing with erudite commentary on the state of the world set to a deconstructive, yet progressive, soundtrack. That's before you realise that the first quintet of songs are probably the most boring opening salvo since the last Sepultura album.