FRAMES

I believe everyone sets Frames in his life; personal, moral, social and in our case, musical. The good thing about setting them is that there comes a time that you go beyond them and realise there is something worthwhile out there that could surprise you.

I am most of the times biased towards bands that claim to play this sort of post/modern prog rock as I usually find is just a tag and not really progressive rock music - rather it is a well-polished mixture of new rock and pop. While OCEANSIZE are under psychedelic/space rock I would describe them as an innovative post rock band judging from this latest album.

I have not heard their previous two studio releases but this one was a very pleasant surprise to me. OCEANSIZE present a beautiful album mainly influenced by the new stream of crossover/post rock with intelligent additions from the psych and metal scene. The touch of Pink Floyd is here, but not dominant while there are moments where I could hear a bit of Tool, Pain of Salvation (!) (Unfamiliar) and Black Sabbath-influenced riffs (Sleeping Dogs and Dad Lions). The music sometimes resembles to bands like Radiohead, Muse, Sigur Ros and even Coldplay but has a much more challenging character.

The opening track starts off with a melodic clean guitar pattern which afterwards builds up with vocals and distorted guitars. Although remaining similar for most of the track's duration it is still highly interesting with a clever break riff after 5.5 minutes. Unfamiliar seems to be the album's 'hit' with a powerful opening and an fantastic prog riff kicking off before the track turns into an indeed 'unfamiliar' modern post rock pattern. Exceptional bass work is the highlight here. Trail of Fire seems to calm down the mood for a few minutes with a melodic start but its dynamic middle part breaks the silence.

What did not happen before occurs in the next two tracks which flow on slow melodic tunes, with Savant introducing beautiful sounds of violins; Only Twin probably consists of the strongest vocal melodies in the whole album. The instrumental An Old Friend of the Christies changes the mood to a dark and painfully slow, even gothic/doom, atmosphere, reminding me of the good moments of Anathema and The Gathering. The heaviest track on the album is Sleeping Dogs and Dead Lions - a completely different song than anything in the album, reveals the heaviest, darkest and most obscure side of OCEANSIZE. Here you will hear the most prog, complex, heavy and weird riffs in the album with even a touch of eclectic and fusion (!). The closing track sums up nicely the album, flowing in simple nice melodic tunes dressed again with solid vocal sections and violin/cello sounds.

Repetition is a slight problem and occurs only limited times (a problem that happens to most post rock bands in my opinion). I would like to hear even more innovative songs from OCEANSIZE as I believe they can produce even stronger and more interesting compositions. The second half of the record sounds more challenging musically and I would recommend it to any prog fan.