As it's become more a part of the mainstream, heavy metal has needed to find newer and more terrifying ways to maintain its status as the genre most likely to scare your parents. Leading the way in these innovations are Chicago's
Oceano, who hone their shuddering, monstrous sound to menacing perfection with their third outing,
Incisions. Pushing the ideas of death metal to their most inhuman and industrial extremes, the band's lurching, atonal guitar work and guttural growls feel almost alien. Although the band is working, ostensibly, in the oft-maligned subgenre of deathcore,
Incisions shows that there's more to
Oceano's sound than rote repetition of a few genre tropes, and makes a strong case for the band being the punishing sound's best champions. ~ Gregory Heaney