The storm of replacing band members has settled and Oceans Red have picked up the pieces and unveiled their own volatile disturbance in the world, with their debut record, Anevidence.
The aptly titled ‘Falling’ is the first wave of destruction that is bestowed upon the ear. Crushing riffs and electronics collide with a bitterness that is sweetened slightly by melody. This is not metalcore for the faint hearted. When the quartet hit home, they hit hard. Smashing teeth with a beautiful cacophony of noise often played at breakneck speeds.
The infectous ‘Home’ has frontman Joel Holmqvist sounding as raw as swallowing razor blades, while the synths gleam from the polish applied. Elsewhere, ‘Black Spot’ has the guitars set to disgustingly fast and relentlessly heavy. There’s nowhere to hide from the chaos, until the uplifting end, which drops without warning, cue the dirtiest pit imaginable.
However, Oceans Reds take on metalcore, at times sounds as if Slipknot and Asking Alexandria bumped uglies and gave birth, only to find they were related. The overcomplicated ‘If For Good Meant Forever’ has all the weird synths under the sun thrown into it, because why not? While the far too busy ‘The Death Round’ sounds like it could give you lughole epilepsy such is the smorgasbord of electronics that swirl around.
As debuts go Anevidence is a glass half full of promise. Where some of the tracks will have crowds baying for more, there are just as many that will empty the room.
