Sunday 30 August 2009

Review - An Ocean Between Us - Drowning

An Ocean Between Us - Drowning

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6 out of 10

An Ocean Between Us are a female fronted Italian metal band, so comparisons with Lacuna Coil are inevitable, but, apart from the vocal set up, the two couldn’t be further apart. Their metalcore sound borrows heavily from scene titans Killswitch Engage and 36 Crazyfists.

’Reignite the Heart’ sets An Ocean Between Us’ stall out early, all savage guitars and frenetic drums, it’s a formula that is followed, admittedly to lesser effect, throughout the five song EP. The intro riff from ’Shoreless Love Song’ is memorable, though the song runs out of steam pretty quickly; the same could be said of ’Black Will Turn To Grey’ which passes the listener by somewhat. Closer ’Path To Your Demise’ is another reminder of the potential of An Ocean Between Us, unfortunately the five songs on ’Drowning’ fail to offer anything new in an over-crowded genre. What sets An Ocean Between Us apart from the crowd is the use of female vocalist (Kla) backed by a male (Dan), his screams are not over-used, a failing of many bands of the genre, the band preferring to rely on the vocals of Kla. As most European female vocalists tend to, she sounds fantastic, a cross between Cristina Scabbia and Maria Brink of In This Moment.

This is a decent album, one that gets the basics right, but strives for little else. A little more adventure would not have gone amiss, there are signs of a fantastic band here, but ones that needs a little more time to develop and hone their sound.

Listen: www.myspace.com/anoceanbetweenus1

Tracklist:
1. Reignite The Heart
2. Shoreless Love Song
3. Black Will Turn To Grey
4. This Time I’m Holding On
5. The Path To Your Demise

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