Quite the oddity, this Finnish group with the strange band name and
quirky member pseudonyms that seem to change with almost every
album.
After a previous stint as
Festerday,
the band debuted in 1998 with
The Dynamic Gallery Of Thoughts, a symphonic black metal
album frequently and favorably compared to
Dimmu Borgir
circa Stormblast,
though even early on there are signs that this
band is trying to do something different.
By 2000 the band had really started spreading its wings, releasing
an album with the elaborate title
Allotropic/Metamorphic Genesis Of Dismorphism.
Why they decided to exchange one set of stage names for another is
anyone's guess, but anyway the focus here is still on black metal,
but with a unique twist, that being the very evident
electronic/techno keyboard work.
Clearly a band who writes songs with titles such as
"Mechanic Hippie", "Baby Blue Doll - Merry Go Mind", or
"Intelligence Is Sexy"
(not the mention the titles on 2002's Cypher, each of which
is a mouthful in itself)
is a band working on their own terms.
... And Oceans is
highly recommended not only to black metal fans but also metal fans
in general looking for something just a bit different.
Eventually the band decided to morph their sound into something quite
different, and so ... And Oceans was officially put to rest, and
the more industrial-minded
Havoc Unit
emerged.
That band released one album in 2008 and was never heard from again,
and for some time the band members laid low.
Yet by 2019 both the original band (Festerday) and ... And Oceans
were officially active, with the former releasing a new album
that year and AO coming out with a new effort in 2020.
Upcoming album: The Regeneration Itinerary,
release date May 23, 2025.
