Oceanic | Loppylugs

Submitted by Richard Norbury on 16 February 2013 - 10:03pm

Cover:

Artist:

Isis

album-ID:

a_44

Nationality:

USA

Year:

2 002

Release-year:

0000

Num-of-tracks:

Track-listing:

The Beginning And The End*The Other*False Light*Carry*- *Maritime*Weight*From Sinking*Hym

Length-in-mins:

Nominator:

Bean

meeting-ID:

m_18

Now-num:

Spotify-URL:

0ikf8Rtck9BS3sXlHp01Lc

Grooveshark-URL:

Oceanic/289850

Short-title:

oceanic

nominator-ID:

u_14

Meeting-date:

Monday, 23 February 2009

MusicBrainz-URL:

2426e089-b3e2-3513-b43e-f1b73fb54e60

Wikipedia-URL:

Oceanic_(Isis_album)

Spotify-link-type:

album

Discogs-URL:

Isis-Oceanic/master/25792

Allmusic-URL:

oceanic-mw0000224030

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109

117

reviewers-IDs data

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-22-

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80

reviewed by

Richard Norbury

Mental
70

reviewed by

Glyn Lewis

Take TCP and gargle every day...

1-7-9

6

I was struck by the vocal technique used on this album. It's almost as if the gentleman singer from the band is hoarsely shouting unintelligible nonsense at the top of his voice. I quite liked it. For me, the idea of that kind of singing is that it is demented, so I thought it worked better on a song like Hym where he was getting a bit more carried away. Also, it's not the sort of thing you can do too much of, as it is so extreme, so I was pleased that it wasn't over used, there were long instrumental sequences and even a female vocalist used elsewhere.

Beyond the vocals, I was a little unsure about the mix of approaches, some of it is really quite light and textural and then they go for a full on death metal assault. It's interesting playing on the contrasts but I don't know how many combinations you can get. Weight was one that seemed to work really well, you're tricked into thinking it's a long, light, soft rock piece and then it gets more and more broody, building up to something quite different. I was really swept along by this one.

As an album it is hard work, a few tracks are great at a time, as it has a striking, bizarre and unusual sound but to listen to the whole thing is a big ask, it doesn't necessarily make for a complete album experience, with variety. As is often the case, it's an album that could do with some cropping back, but there is some engaging, challenging stuff in there.
40

reviewed by

Martin Lewis

Just listen to track 7 and leave the rest alone

7

1

A strange album. Reasonable musicaly but track after track ruined by riduculous raucous, screaming lyrics. Why? Most tracks have a promising lead in then in comes the mental screaming and time to move on to the next track as it is unbearable. However, tack 7 has none of this and has some amazingly good primal drumming. This track is excellent shame about the rest of the album.
31

reviewed by

Neil Hornsey

Can't stand the shouting nonsense, I don't see the point. In no way can I find that enjoyable. The music behind the shouting is mostly bland - good production cannot hide that fact. Mostly unoriginal and uninspiring.