...And Oceans

Cypher takes ...And Oceans another step further away from their black/death metal origins. The percussive guitars, and even much of the vocals, lean more towards industrial than metal, and "Voyage: Lost Between Horizons: Eaten by the Distance" would sound right at home alongside Die Krupps or Front 242. Techno creeps into the thick layers of synthesised sounds, while the monotonic cacophony of the final track verges on noise. Occasionally ...And Oceans break into a melodic riff, even as the brutal metallic edge of the guitars never wavers, but as overwhelmingly electronic, as inescapably blackened and apocalyptic as Cypher is, it lacks the consistency of a really good album. It has its moments, but on the whole, the CD storms by without leaving much of a lasting impression behind.