Review by Michael on June 10, 2025.

Finnish symphonic black metal pioneers …And Oceans are back with their 7th full-length album The Regeneration Itinerary and I have to admit that I had a really big "what the fuck?" moment while listening to the first tunes of it.

Why? Well, if you compare the new album to the previous ones, the guys have moved pretty much out of their comfort zone with melodic, almost sweet smooth keyboard parts just to incorporate some more gloomy blast beat attacks and a lot of techno samples. This uncompromising approach makes the band clear right from the start with the opener "Inertiae". Gone are the relaxing parts, this feeling that maybe not everything is so supper shitty as it seems.

The band grounds you with their music and brings you back to the harsh reality. Here is no time for beauty or shelter. This is some crushing black metal with a lot of influences from death metal up to grind core (like in "Förnyelse I Tre Akter").

Only sometimes the guys fall back to their typical melodic keyboard parts but the most part of the album is really disturbing and dark.

Which doesn't mean that there are no emotions in the music. Vocalist Mathias is screaming out his lungs and sounds very embittered, his high-pitched screams let the songs appear even more desperate than without vocals.

For instance a track like "The Form And The Formless" is like a blizzard blasting out of your speakers. The hateful vocals at the start blow you away in shock and awe and the super dense mixture of keyboards and guitars award the song a sheer relentlessness. And all of a sudden, there is this strange techno sample (where I thought it was inspired by the German movie "Lola Runs" but the band told me it had something to do with Nintendo, haha). This is really some crazy trip the Fins are offering here.

"Prophetical Mercury Implement" however sounds a lot like the old Emperor. But on speed. It is the longest track on The Regeneration Itinerary (with about 7 minutes running time) and probably the most symphonic one. Here the melodic keyboards are much more in the foreground than on the other tracks and what makes the song very entertaining too, are the breaks in it. So there are a lot of tempo changes and intermezzos in here to give it all a certain drama.

Another outstanding track is "I Am Coin, I Am Two") where we can find some spoken words and some more thrash metal lurking in the refrain which reminds pretty much of the first two Zyklon albums from the early 2000s (if anybody else can remember this underrated band).

And finally there is also some light to find here. Maybe the song is the musical equivalent to the weather today. Mostly rain but sometimes the sun is lurking through the grey clouds. Here are some really beautiful keyboards to find, that is a massive contrast to the vocals and blast beats that are the complete opposite of that.

With this 7th album …And Oceans haven't chosen an easy path to go on but if you are open minded (and I guess that most of the fans of the band are) you might see a really good album in it. It might not have an instant impact on you because of the stark difference to the previous albums but, I beg your pardon for that phrase, it is a grower.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Review by Michael on June 10, 2025.

Finnish symphonic black metal pioneers …And Oceans are back with their 7th full-length album The Regeneration Itinerary and I have to admit that I had a really big "what the fuck?" moment while listening to the first tunes of it.

Why? Well, if you compare the new album to the previous ones, the guys have moved pretty much out of their comfort zone with melodic, almost sweet smooth keyboard parts just to incorporate some more gloomy blast beat attacks and a lot of techno samples. This uncompromising approach makes the band clear right from the start with the opener "Inertiae". Gone are the relaxing parts, this feeling that maybe not everything is so supper shitty as it seems.

The band grounds you with their music and brings you back to the harsh reality. Here is no time for beauty or shelter. This is some crushing black metal with a lot of influences from death metal up to grind core (like in "Förnyelse I Tre Akter").

Only sometimes the guys fall back to their typical melodic keyboard parts but the most part of the album is really disturbing and dark.

Which doesn't mean that there are no emotions in the music. Vocalist Mathias is screaming out his lungs and sounds very embittered, his high-pitched screams let the songs appear even more desperate than without vocals.

For instance a track like "The Form And The Formless" is like a blizzard blasting out of your speakers. The hateful vocals at the start blow you away in shock and awe and the super dense mixture of keyboards and guitars award the song a sheer relentlessness. And all of a sudden, there is this strange techno sample (where I thought it was inspired by the German movie "Lola Runs" but the band told me it had something to do with Nintendo, haha). This is really some crazy trip the Fins are offering here.

"Prophetical Mercury Implement" however sounds a lot like the old Emperor. But on speed. It is the longest track on The Regeneration Itinerary (with about 7 minutes running time) and probably the most symphonic one. Here the melodic keyboards are much more in the foreground than on the other tracks and what makes the song very entertaining too, are the breaks in it. So there are a lot of tempo changes and intermezzos in here to give it all a certain drama.

Another outstanding track is "I Am Coin, I Am Two") where we can find some spoken words and some more thrash metal lurking in the refrain which reminds pretty much of the first two Zyklon albums from the early 2000s (if anybody else can remember this underrated band).

And finally there is also some light to find here. Maybe the song is the musical equivalent to the weather today. Mostly rain but sometimes the sun is lurking through the grey clouds. Here are some really beautiful keyboards to find, that is a massive contrast to the vocals and blast beats that are the complete opposite of that.

With this 7th album …And Oceans haven't chosen an easy path to go on but if you are open minded (and I guess that most of the fans of the band are) you might see a really good album in it. It might not have an instant impact on you because of the stark difference to the previous albums but, I beg your pardon for that phrase, it is a grower.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Review by Michael on June 10, 2025.

Finnish symphonic black metal pioneers …And Oceans are back with their 7th full-length album The Regeneration Itinerary and I have to admit that I had a really big "what the fuck?" moment while listening to the first tunes of it.

Why? Well, if you compare the new album to the previous ones, the guys have moved pretty much out of their comfort zone with melodic, almost sweet smooth keyboard parts just to incorporate some more gloomy blast beat attacks and a lot of techno samples. This uncompromising approach makes the band clear right from the start with the opener "Inertiae". Gone are the relaxing parts, this feeling that maybe not everything is so supper shitty as it seems.

The band grounds you with their music and brings you back to the harsh reality. Here is no time for beauty or shelter. This is some crushing black metal with a lot of influences from death metal up to grind core (like in "Förnyelse I Tre Akter").

Only sometimes the guys fall back to their typical melodic keyboard parts but the most part of the album is really disturbing and dark.

Which doesn't mean that there are no emotions in the music. Vocalist Mathias is screaming out his lungs and sounds very embittered, his high-pitched screams let the songs appear even more desperate than without vocals.

For instance a track like "The Form And The Formless" is like a blizzard blasting out of your speakers. The hateful vocals at the start blow you away in shock and awe and the super dense mixture of keyboards and guitars award the song a sheer relentlessness. And all of a sudden, there is this strange techno sample (where I thought it was inspired by the German movie "Lola Runs" but the band told me it had something to do with Nintendo, haha). This is really some crazy trip the Fins are offering here.

"Prophetical Mercury Implement" however sounds a lot like the old Emperor. But on speed. It is the longest track on The Regeneration Itinerary (with about 7 minutes running time) and probably the most symphonic one. Here the melodic keyboards are much more in the foreground than on the other tracks and what makes the song very entertaining too, are the breaks in it. So there are a lot of tempo changes and intermezzos in here to give it all a certain drama.

Another outstanding track is "I Am Coin, I Am Two") where we can find some spoken words and some more thrash metal lurking in the refrain which reminds pretty much of the first two Zyklon albums from the early 2000s (if anybody else can remember this underrated band).

And finally there is also some light to find here. Maybe the song is the musical equivalent to the weather today. Mostly rain but sometimes the sun is lurking through the grey clouds. Here are some really beautiful keyboards to find, that is a massive contrast to the vocals and blast beats that are the complete opposite of that.

With this 7th album …And Oceans haven't chosen an easy path to go on but if you are open minded (and I guess that most of the fans of the band are) you might see a really good album in it. It might not have an instant impact on you because of the stark difference to the previous albums but, I beg your pardon for that phrase, it is a grower.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10