Artist: …and Oceans
Country: Finland
Label: Season of Mist
Formats: LP / CD
Year: 2025
When I first ran into …and Oceans, sometime around the turn of the millennium, I was completely blown away with the band’s debut album, ‘Dynamic Gallery Of Thoughts’. Although it consisted of the main components of Symphonic Black Metal, this Finnish band offered so much more: not only in a way more versatile and, yes, dynamic song writing, but even more so mind-blowing creativity. At the time of its initial release, in 1998, there was no band like them. This was pure black art in a completely different way than anything I had ever heard before.
The subsequent ‘The Symmetry Of I – The Circle Of O’ from 1999 continued along the path previously taken, but as a whole was slightly less overwhelming. Yet, I wasn’t quite prepared for what the band was going to do right after. In those days when you couldn’t access everything with two clicks of the mouse, I bought the album on the day of its release without being able to listen to the album first. When I put it on, I was in shock and awe. 2001’s ‘A.M.G.O.D.’ showed a band transformed into a full-blown Industrial Black Metal band with lots of Techno and even Trance like vibes. Those years, around the 2000’s, were characterized with lots of Black Metal bands being experimental and straying away from their roots. In 1999 The Kovenant, Satyricon and Dødheimsgard came out with ‘Animatronic’, ‘Rebel Extravaganza’ and Dødheimsgard ‘666 International’ respectively, and Mayhem bewildered their fans with their phenomenal ‘Grand Declaration Of War’ in 2000. Such was the musical firmament in which ‘A.M.G.O.D.’ landed.
Obviously the album garnered as much praise as it did thoughts of disbelief. That sentiment was only further deepened with the release of ‘Cypher’ the following year. An album at which …and Oceans relied even more on a electronic approach. Upon realising they had taken their musical experimentalism a bit too far to still be able to credibly use the old band name. As a result, after their 10th anniversary they rebranded themselves and took on the name of Havoc Unit, which they carried until their ultimate demise in 2013. Although I personally never understood the need for the name change, after all it was a musical progression that took shape through the release of each subsequent album, I more or less lost sight of the band after the release of ‘Cypher’.
I can’t deny having been surprised and sceptical when the band announced their return and their decision to continue to work under the …and Oceans name. Yet, ‘Cosmic World Mother’ (2020) and ‘As In Gardens, So In Tombs’ (2023) proved to be excellent records, brimming with outstanding and expertly crafted bombastic and symphonic Black Metal. However, besides the albums being a tad too long, I really missed the stunning creativity of their first four albums. Plus, the electronics that had always been part of the band’s musical formula, to a greater or lesser extent, had actually been completely lost. So: good albums that I enjoyed listening to, but which failed to generate the same level of enthusiasm.
Still, with the release of their newest offering, my curiosity was peaked. In fact, with one of the teaser singles I again heard some of those beloved electronics. While I tried to control my enthusiasm with my natural dose of scepticism, I started to hope for an album that would show how …and Oceans sounded in their creative prime.
And although this overly long introduction may have given away too much already, the conclusion is clear: ‘The Regeneration Itinerary’ is definitely the …and Oceans’ best record since their return to the stage. This conclusion is based on a thorough dissection of the album and, not least, on many listens — hence the delay in publishing this review. The band has not reached the high level of creativity and the dizzyingly deep dynamics as displayed on the first four records, but for sure …and Oceans sounds much fresher and more convincing than on their last two. If you happen to have heard the previous two albums, you can just take that as the basis for ‘The Regeneration Itinerary’ and add a higher amount of tempo changes, sudden bursts of quircky melodies and, yes!, electronics. Sometimes a bit more subtle, but on occasion there’s a good dose of electronic beats as well. Not as abundantly wild as on ‘A.M.G.O.D.’ or ‘Cypher’, but I can only hope that this is a first step of further re-incorporating those elements into the band’s formula. Regardless, this album has been given a more than fitting title, which also gives even more hope for the future.
