…AND OCEANS

Cosmic World Mother SEASON OF MIST

Philosophical grandiosity from Finnish black metal lifers

One of the issues involved with symphonic black metal is the type of music from which it draws. Rather than the spectralist soundscapes of Gerard Grisey and Iancu Dumitrescu or the ‘musiquie concrète’ of Stockhausen, most end up sounding like Mantovani in corpsepaint. While Finnish outfit …And Oceans run that risk, One Of Light, One Of Soil is where the elements of their sound come together to form a convincing whole. It’s perhaps no coincidence that this track is where the keyboards are most thoughtfully employed. As on epic closer The Flickering Lights, the synthetic symphonics lend the furious blasting a sense of decayed grandeur befitting the veteran status of a group who have endured and evolved since 1995. ■■■■■■■■■■

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