STYLE: Hard Music RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 151370-23143 LABEL: InVogue IVR045 FORMAT: CD Album ITEMS: 1
Reviewed by Paul S Ganney
Being As An Ocean is a melodic hardcore band from Alpine, California, formed in 2011 and this album made it to 54 on America's mainstream album chart. Piling in with massive guitars and a (mostly) shouted vocal, this album is aiming for your throat and doesn't miss. It has doom-laden picking ("Death's Great Black Wing Scrapes The Air", for example) and great song titles (ditto). The title track is a very moody (and slightly weird) instrumental. The interplay between the two vocalists (described as "clean vocals" and "unclean vocals") gets better as the album progresses, working very well on "We Drag The Dead On Leashes", for example. "Even The Dead Have Their Tasks" has a more radio-friendly rock feel to it spotlighting the "clean" vocal whereas "Grace, Teach Us What We Lack" has a deadpan vocal that sounds slightly flat making the "unclean" vocal shine in contrast. It's solidly in its genre (so you probably already know whether or not you'll like it). In trying to describe the overall sound, I'd say that there's a feel of Anathema in parts, some early Pink Floyd, a bit of (dare I say it) 5 Seconds of Summer, maybe The Way and a lot of Nirvana, Seventh Day Slumber and Sum 41.
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