On May 23rd, 2025, the stubbornly unconventional black-metal grand masters, … AND OCEANS, released the third studio album into their comeback. Entitled “The Regeneration Itinerary” and released via Season of Mist, the new album condenses the band’s 30-year history into 10 tracks of symphonic grandiosity, industrial flourishes, and razor-sharp tremolo riffs. Some have already dubbed the endeavor as the band’s career peak and it’s easy to agree; in a genre that defies boundaries by default, … AND OCEANS has earned a torchbearer status over the years for releasing albums the constantly reinvent the band’s signature sound, from the classic, symphonic black metal of their 1998 debut “The Dynamic Gallery of Thoughts” to their early-2000s industrial-era efforts for Century Media, preceding a lengthy hiatus until their triumphant comeback almost 15 years later. The trick is in the beauty of contrast, the duality of light and dark – in the balancing act that navigates the delicate equilibrium between aggression and atmospheric melodicism, or as the band’s Bandcamp profile puts it, “where shadows kiss the dawn.”
Okay, I must admit that I’m not an expert on matters related to black metal since, apart from a few classics, I tend to listen to the hipster bands, mostly. Still, I’m sure that inserting old-school acid techno elements into a black-metal song is not the most typical code of conduct for BM bands. That’s exactly what … AND OCEANS does right off the bat in the opener, “Inertiae.” What’s even more outlandish is that they make it sound like the most natural thing in the world. It’s almost as if your Spotify playlist shuffled that early-1990s rave classic, “Das Boot,” by U96 after DIMMU BORGIR – and if bloody well works! I wasn’t familiar with the music of … AND OCEANS before I took it upon myself to review this album, and they immediately made me fall in love with their quirky, sonic madness. It’s just that working my way through the whole album took a little longer than usual because I had to put not only the opener but also quite a few other tracks on repeat quite a few times before proceeding.
For starters, the production is nothing short of immaculate. The album was mixed and mastered by Tore Stjerna at Necromorbus Studio in Sweden, and the guy did quite an impressive job. The songs sound insanely immersive, especially with headphones, which is not something you could say about your average black-metal offering in this day and age. Then again, it helps that the songs are so symphonic, even with all the electronic, atmospheric, and melodic embellishments. That’s how the band started, and they have refined that signature sound to a league of its own over the years. That said, the second track on the album, “Förnyelse i Tre Akter,” as the name implies, harkens back to the band’s early years when they sung exclusively in Swedish, albeit the song’s coda could fit just as well to any post rock album of late, maybe minus the full-on blast beats.
Another thing that stands out is the sophisticated way the band puts the Finnish metal standard, Slavic melancholy, to good use throughout the album. Most prominently, it is integrated in the band’s conduct in songs such as “Chromium Lungs, Bronze Optics” and “Towards the Absence of Light,” the latter of which is straight-up schlager black metal à la THE AGENTS meets EMPEROR. By opting for something of this sort, the band side-steps into the sandbox of Finnish death-doom bands, such as SWALLOW THE SUN. Speaking of which, “I Am Coin, I Am Two” does kick off like your average death-doom banger, only to evolve into a full-tilt black-metal boogie with an almost ENSLAVED-tinted, progressive edge. So, I guess … AND OCEANS does not only reach out beyond the genre’s boundaries but takes the tried-and-true black-metal conventions and grinds them into smithereens in their musical atom smasher. For me, the band appears to be some sort of kindred spirit to THY CATAFALQUE. “The Form and the Formless” even flirts with subtle death-metal flourishes, like some of the latest endeavors by Tamás Katai at the helm of that Hungarian avant-garde act.
That’s not even the whole story; in addition to the ample razor-sharp tremolo riffs and symphonic soundscapes, the album also boasts moments of folksy, almost hipster-style BM, sci-fi synths, even more high-octane blast beats, and disco breaks! All this before the epic closer, “The Terminal Filter,” wraps things up with subtle BORKNAGAR-vibed riffage against a cinematic backdrop of HANS ZIMMER-esque synths. I guess this album does not represent the most orthodox code of black-metal conduct, but perhaps, it is the very reason it sounds so impressive. “The Regeneration Itinerary” is a fervent glimpse into the frozen, existential depths of the human soul, revealing what the whole black-metal genre has been trying to teach us from day one – that there is ineffable beauty in the darkness.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Tracklist
- Inertiae
- Förnyelse i Tre Akter
- Chromium Lungs, Bronze Optics
- The Form and the Formless
- Prophetical Mercury Implement
- The Fire in Which We Burn
- The Ways of Sulphur
- I Am Coin, I Am Two
- Towards the Absence of Light
- The Terminal Filter
Lineup
Mathias Lillmåns – vocals
Teemu Saari – guitars
Timo Kontio – guitars
Pyry Hanski – bass
Antti Simonen – keyboards
Kauko Kuusisalo – drums
Label
Season of Mist
Links
https://www.instagram.com/andoceans_official
