…and Oceans have always been an interesting band, transforming their sound from symphonic black metal to a more electronic industrialised style. When I saw this, it occurred to me that I hadn’t heard of them for ages. There was an EP in 2019, which I missed, but they haven’t released a full album since 2002. This is in part due to a name change. “Cosmic World Mother” is their fifth full album release.
The symphonic sound is back and immediately on display with the opener “The Dissolution of Mind and Matter”. This is lung-burst black metal turbulence and fury, with those symphonic notes hanging about in the rancid area. No less intense is “Vigilance and Atrophy”. This is anger personified. I’m thinking Dimmu Borgir and Vesania at this point, as they sweep all asunder and all that. Of course it’s hard hitting and epic. The keyboards swirl once more as the fury and venom of “Five of Swords” are leashed upon us. Anger and heaviness and collapsing structures are what there is in this violent maelstrom.
As the album progressed, I felt I was being washed away with this impressive whirlwind without really appreciating the finer points. A shuffly electronic bit on the title reinstated my consciousness but I wasn’t too sure where all this was going. The start of “Helminthiasis” recalled Marduk. The vocalist roars, things are flying around in the air. There is a melancholic touch, and a choral voice sounds as if it is in the midst of an electric storm. This the atmospheric side of …and Oceans. After this momentary variety, which didn’t hang together, we return to the symphonically explosive warfare of “Oscillator Epitaph”, with a cosmic ending which takes us into the grey horror-inspired gloom of “In Abhorrence Upon Meadows”. Symphonic black metal returns with the extreme and epic “Apokatastatis”, possibly my favourite of this collection. By contrast “One of Light, One of Soil”, which follows, is a bit anonymous, but at least the final song “The Flickering Lights” starts with menace and intent. The keyboard sound whistles in the air as the song represents the sombre side of chaos, and brings the album to a close on a suitably dark note.
It’s as if …and Oceans wanted to get something nasty out of their system. It’s a turbulent ride but I’m very glad they shared it with us. My only reservation is that it doesn’t stray much from its violent path, and when it does, I struggled to see it as joined up, but “Cosmic World Mother” is as tight and intense an example of black metal as there is, and that counts for a lot.
(7/10 Andrew Doherty)
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