The Ocean - Pelagial

Yeah, it’s more of the same.

Just figured I’d come right out and say it up front instead of taking four paragraphs to get to it. But like the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And fix it The Ocean don’t.

The concept behind Pelagial is that every song is named after the different layers of the ocean (descending from Pelagial all the way down to Benthic) with the tuning and lyrical content drifting on doooooooowwwwwnnnn while occasionally becoming appropriately violent. It works for the most part, but I think it might go over a lot of listeners' heads if they weren’t either A) informed ahead of time, or B) an oceanographer. Betcha know which one of those I was.

Instrumentally, Pelagial don't seem to stray too far from the usual formula of Mariana Trench scraping bass lines and wispy, progressive riffs with a mixture of ADD-addled drum work versus slow and jazzy fills and thrills. Like I said, nothing really new here.

But the fact of the matter is it don't amount to shit when it’s as good as this. The progressive side of The Ocean always seems to outshine the sludge/core aspect. This has been true from Fluxion to Anthropocentric and remains to be just as true in Pelagial. The addition of an instrumental version of Pelagial is a nice touch, albeit a useless one since the “normal” version is superior due to Loïc Rossetti's mastery of the hardcore bellow and mild clean vocals.

It’s powerful, massive, rolling, deep, and constantly changing while ultimately staying the same. It’s The goddamned Ocean.

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Deadlock - The Arsonist

Whoa! I didn’t know that Spineshank had a new album out! (The only thing that keeps that joke from being perfect is female vocalist Sabine’s presence.)

I’m not really sure how to start this review off, so I’ll just abruptly dive right in; This is easily the most pop friendly sounding “metal” I’ve ever heard in my years since discovering and loving metal. I don’t like to be “that guy”, but I totally feel like him right now. After a little bit of digging, I found out that the pop element of The Arsonist is an intentional move on Deadlock’s part. My question; WHY?! Why mix water and acid? Are you intentionally trying to piss off the metal community? Or are you really trying to push the envelope in terms of creative license?.

Sabine’s vocals are pretty much the reason most fans even give a shit out Deadlock it seems, so you’d think they’d be something special, right? Well, they fit right into the pop world, but make the metalhead in me scratch to my skull! They blare our like a fog horn and overshadow the growling vocals, which by the way, are pretty damned good and feel a little out of place since the majority of the rest of the elements are radio friendly and whatnot.

In terms of instrumentation, Deadlock have this metalcore thing down so if you like synth/pop infused, by the numbers metalcore, this is the band for you and the album you should look into getting. But if you’re like me, you’ll be passing on this one, looking back on Spineshank with fond middle school memories, looking up Height Of Callousness on Spotify, listening to it, hating it, wondering why you were such a nerd and then checking out the newer Spineshank albums…

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