metalmillennium
...And Oceans is one of those bands that catches you with a song and then never lets go with the rest. The Finnish Black Metal band has produced a debut album of songs that keep you listening repeatedly without getting bored. The songs integrate fast guitar riffs and drum lines while keyboards ease through the music. The vocals are a rough rasp, that fit very well with the brutal parts of the songs (even little evil raspy laughs that are quite humourous), but the keyboards add to this by slowly working their magic. The album would be half as good if the keyboards were taken out, which shows just how big of a part the keyboards play in this album. They add tremendous atmosphere to the music, as they fill in parts that the insturments seem to not be able to reach. They also use keyboards at insturmental breaks very effectively.
The slow keyboard line in "Samtal Med Tankar" is a great transition from the rest of the song, before the drums give a thunderous pound to join the keyboards. The intro to "Mikrobotik Fields" is a beautiful Ambient piece that puts a nice change on things before blasting into the rest of the song. Definitely some of the high points on the album. But that doesn't mean the rest of the album disappoints. Throughout the album, the same theme shines, and the guitars even seem to take the place of the keyboards in parts. It just shows that guitars and keyboards can be tweaked to make a great sounding song and album.