After reforming after 18 years in 2020 and releasing one of the best reunion albums of recent memory with Cosmic World Mother, Finland’s enigmatic and genre-shifting…And Oceans wasted little time in releasing the follow-up, As In Gardens, So In Tombs, a mere 2 years later.

And as I said in my review of As In Gardens, there is a danger of a post-reunion second album not quite living up to expectations as the glow and excitement of the initial reunion wears off a little. However, …And Oceans alleviated any concern with an equally excellent second post-reunion album, even if very slight visages of their later cyber/industrial efforts and Havoc Unit iteration showed up.

And here they are again, two years later, with post-reunion album number three, and this one is a little challenging for me. Especially as someone who reveres the band’s first two purely symphonic, if quirky black metal efforts and was a little lukewarm on the style that crept in on A.M.G.O.D and was fully realized on Cypher and then fully embraced in Havoc Unit. (Personally, Thyrane’s Hypnotic is the gold standard for that era of black metal bands going ‘cyber/industrial’) .

You see, The Regeneration Itinerary is a dichotomy of sorts for me; on one hand its by far the most savage, blistering thing they have released under the …And Oceans moniker, but at the same time, even more cyber/industrial elements (programming, electronica, etc) are creeping back into the bands sound as it did with A.M.G.O.D, and I get the feeling this is that same sort of transitional album for the bands second (third if you include Havoc Unit?) act.

That’s not to say this is all beeps, whirs and dance beats (but yes- there are some), because there is some downright brilliant and nasty riffs here, and once again with Swallow the Sun‘s Juho Räihä twiddling the knobs, the guitars are absolutely razor fucking sharp. I mean opener “Inertiae”, is absolutely savage before the techno/programming starts mid song. And is sort of the pattern for the whole album; some really good, slicing modern symphonic (ish) black metal, and more programming.

Second song “Förnyelse i Tre Akter” follows with more blistering opening riffage, that could even be death metal in its savagery (even with a death growl), and then “Chromium Lungs, Bronze Optics” is one of my favorite songs on the album as it has more traditional symphonic black metal synths, some of the album’s more melodic riffs and some lovely female vocals.

“The Form and the Formless” again follows the killer riff/cyber moment mantra, as does the 7-minute, wonderously melodic  “Prophetical Mercury Implement” before the album’s shortest track, “The Fire in Which We Burn”, a direct, no-nonsense blaster.

“The Ways of Sulphur” has that catchy, cyber metal Thyrane-ish bounce and gait before ” I Am Coin, I Am Two” delivers the album’s most classic, first two-album-sounding songs. As the album wraps up with “Towards the Absence of Light” and more solemn “The Terminal Filter”, it’s clear …And Oceans have got this reunion thing nailed, more so than many other bands, many of whom didn’t even make it to three reunion efforts.

There are two bonus songs (“Copper Blood, Titanium Scars”, “The Discord Static”) on the limited edition CD, but when they roll around, I’m kinda ready to move on to something else, even if more cyber-ish “The Discord Static” is kinda fun.

Ultimately, while I do really enjoy the album, I feel that The Regeneration Itinerary, even with some truly impressive riffs and production, is a tiny step back from the other 2 reunion albums, as the cyber elements start increasing, as they did with the band’s first go around- will it come full circle? Reunion album #4 will no doubt tell us, but as it stands this three album run is pretty damn impressive.

 

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments