Review: …And Oceans – The Regeneration Itinerary
“The Regeneration Itinerary” is another creative whirlwind by …And Ocenas. It feels like a dark voyage wrapped in symphonic elegance and industrial grit, a finely tuned collision of avant-garde ambition and black metal ferocity. From its first moments, the album strikes a theatrical pose, weaving atmospheric synths into tremolo-picked guitars that lash out with fury, then retreat into hushed electronic pulses. It’s a statement of intent: this is neither nostalgia nor trend chasing but a daring output of semi-mad creativity.
By weaving fragments of trance-dance rhythms into tracks built on razor-sharp riffing and operatic synth lines, the band builds considerable momentum. The transitions can feel abrupt – one moment you’re swallowed in frigid black metal uproar, and the next you’re faced with ember-lit electronics glowing through the chaos. Yet these jarring shifts raise the stakes, refusing to let comfort reign, even if the pendulum sometimes swings too far.
The core songwriting remains potent. When the album leans into its melodic foundation, moments of soaring crescendos and icy riffs emerge with confidence. Many parts that meld melancholic melody with crushing aggression remind us why this band earned prominence in the first place. These moments provide the emotional anchor, grounding the eccentric flourishes that surround them.
There are risks, and not all land fully. Some parts stretch to limit of their central motifs, the repetition threatening fatigue across the album’s running time. There are corners that feel overstuffed, where ideas compete rather than cohere. But when the machinery is operating smoothly, it’s magnificently and have vocals shift from visceral shrieks to guttural undertones, guitars flare and simmer, synthesizers pulse with unsettling beauty, and drums propel the narratives with surgical precision.
Production serves the duality well. It’s both dense and disciplined, giving weight to the ritualistic darkness while allowing stray beams of melody and synth to shine through. The mix never feels either undercooked or mushy—it’s a calculated balance, letting each strand breathe and resonate.
If there is a critique, it’s that at times the experimental ambitions overshadow the emotional resonance. The album can feel cerebral, even schematic, as if checked against a concept board rather than poured from visceral necessity. Occasionally, the machine is felt more than the pulse, and those who seek raw catharsis may find themselves held at arm’s length by the artifice.
Still, there’s no denying the scale of vision, or the skill with which it’s executed. In embracing dualities—light and dark, chaos and structure, melody and melody’s dissolution—The Regeneration Itinerary feels alchemical with purpose, a deliberate reinvention that refuses to settle into safe territory.
On balance, this is a commanding return and reclamation of identity, an album that feels both rooted in legacy and unafraid to shatter its own foundations. It may not unify all its ideas with perfect clarity, but it compels attention and rewards immersion.