Band Of The Week: Depths

It's the first full Band Of The Week of 2014! Depths are a deathcore outfit from New Zealand, who fit right in with bands like Legend, Oceano, Thy Art Is Murder, and Fit for An Autopsy. With a heavy focus on dark atmosphere, and crushing riffs. The bands debut album is about a year old now, but it's got great staying power and is worth your time if you are a fan of any of the above listed bands.

The Acacia Strain Announce New EP!

A lot has happened with The Acacia Strain in the last year or so since the release of their latest album Death Is The Only Mortal, which you can read my review of here. The band lost long time member Daniel 'DL' Laskiewicz, who was a big part of the bands writing process from day one, but had not been touring with the band for sometime. Shortly after they announced his departure they announced the addition of two new guitarists, Devin Shidaker (ex-Oceano guitarist) and Richie Gomez (ex-Molotov Solution guitarist). Many were curious how much of an impact DL's departure would have on the bands writing but after listening to this new track 'Above' I think we don't have much reason for concern.

DL Is Out Of The Acacia Strain

Lambgoat reported this story today that guitarist Daniel 'DL' Laskiewicz is out of the Acacia Strain. Myself and Vince over at Metalsucks didn't even realize that DL had not been touring with the band for a long time, just writing and most recently producing.

First Oceano Studio Update!

I'm a few days late here, but I just stumbled on this late yesterday. Oceano have posted the first studio update for their upcoming third album Incisions. The first half of the video is dedicated to the fact that they had a guitarist quit and join another band, they don't state the band name and I can't seem to find info on it online, but regardless Devin Shidaker was replaced by Michael Kasper. Maybe Kasper will bring something fresh to the band. After the guitar jokes and such we get to actual material related to the album. A few snippets of new guitar workt hat sounds pretty impressive and some interview questions with the band. I'm not sure who shot and edited the video, but It might have been shot and edited on a potato. Still it's nice to see the guys working and definitely nice to hear some new jams.

Oceano Post New Song 'Slow Murder'!

It's been a crazy ride for Oceano since their last album, but the band is back with a new record and today they've given us a brand new song to hold us over. The song is titled 'Slow Murder' and it'll be on the album Incisions, which doesn't yet have a release date. The song itself is pretty great though. They've added some djentier tones to the guitars, which is not exactly surprising, but the guitar work feels overall like a bit of an improvement. The pseudo clean vocals make take a little growing for me though.

Oceano Covered Jimi Hendrix!

Sometime last year the people behind the game Homefront, which didn't fare too fantastically in the video game world, despite being a pretty good game, got a bunch of bands including As I Lay Dying, The Acacia Strain, Periphery, and of course Oceano together to record covers of popular war songs, mostly by older metal bands. Apparently though, Oceano had recorded two covers, one of which never made it to the album, and on top of that the studio and the band never got paid for it by Earache. So in response to this, the studio released the song for free.

Oceano Are Writing Again!

After a break up turned Hiatus, Oceano have come back, played a few shows, and now according to their Twitter they are back in writing mode. They had started writing apparently before they broke up, so I'm wondering if this is a fresh start or if they are picking up where they left off? We may never really know.

Oceano Not Breaking Up!

(Update: they are writing again too!)

So it's been a topsy turvy time for both Oceano, and their fans. A couple months back they announced the departure of vocalist Adam Warren, and shortly after they had decided as a whole to disband after their last show at the upcoming New England Metal and Hardcore Festival. It seems though the few months off the band has had was enough rejuvenation for them, and the music itch came back. It looks like the band will be writing again soon and should have an album early next year!

It's A Sad Sad Day. And You Can Cancel That Oceano Album.

Update: Apparently a representative at Earache is saying that Oceano is just going on Hiatus. Which is sort of contrary to the bands facebook status. I'll post more if it gets cleared up.

Update 2: Nevermind, I guess Oceano is broken up for sure.

Two sad things happened today. Howard Jones has left Killswitch Engage, which saddens me deeply. No one is particularly sure yet why he left the band, although there is plenty of speculation. I'm not sure if they've been looking for a replacement or not yet, seeing as they are supposed to have a new album this year. Howard will be missed, he had such a good voice.

Oceano Hits The Studio! (Update 3: Not Breaking Up Now!)

(Update 3: They aren't calling it quits after all! http://tinyurl.com/896oo7s)

(Update 2: In addition to playing the New England Metal and Harcore festival, which was supposedly their last show ever, they agreed to play the Jamboree Festival. Here's an interview confirming the break up: http://www.thejamboreeohio.com/jamblog/oceano-interview/)

(Update: They Broke Up.)

I'm a few days late on this news, but if you happened to stumble across Oceano's facebook recently you might have seen this post:

I Declare War - Self Titled

I Declare War's Malevolence was one of the first deathcore albums I listened to. I enjoyed it a lot at first, but then bands like Whitechapel and All Shall Perish stole my attention. Since Malevolence I've listened to quite a few deathcore bands and would like to believe I have a pretty good idea of what makes a good/great deathcore album. I Declare War isn't the front of the pack in theis genre, but they aren't falling behind either. For me, they are somewhere between Whitechapel and Oceano, both in sound and quality. Malevolence was a good album as a whole, but for me personally it lacked standout tracks. (Although, totally unrelated to their music, I really liked the cover for Malevolence over the new album cover.)