Being As An Ocean - Being As An Ocean

BAAO Mix Previous Sounds and Find Perfect Medium

Being As An Ocean stormed into the melodic hardcore scene with their 2012 début album 'Dear G-d' which I still think to this day is the best album the genre has to offer, with a blend of spoken word and strong conceptual lyrics, emotional storytelling and breathtakingly beautiful instrumentals. 'Dear G-d' still stands out as vocalist Joel Quartuccio's finest album of BAAO's discography, his clean vocals are unbelievable and they flow so well with his uncleans which could give deathcore's finest a run for their money. Then in 2014 they returned with 'How We Both Wondrously Perish' a more diverse album which stayed firm to the melodic hardcore genre, the first notable difference being new guitarist and clean vocalist Michael McGough, the second was how the similarities in tracks made this album seem like a step back from 'Dear G-d'. 'How We Both Wonderously Perish' sounded great musically and had the emotion but lacked the depth and passion that made 'Dear G-d' so breathtaking.

With their latest effort, the self titled 'Being As An Ocean', the Alpine based group have once again not settled for a similar sound, this time mixing the immersive storytelling and the beautiful, hard hitting vocals of 'Dear G-d' with the strong musical structure and hardcore influences in 'How We Both Wonderously Perish'. 

Musically this is Being As An Ocean's strongest album, McGough's clean vocals are eerily beautiful from the opening line of first track 'Little Richie' right to the powerfully direct conclusion '...And Their Consequence', McGough employed a more limited range compared to 2014's 'How We Both Wondrously Perish', but this is definitely not a bad thing as the tone perfectly matches the extremely touching lyrics throughout this record. Joel Quartuciccio's vocals are intense and unrestrained all the way through this album, matching the raw anger of 'Dear G-d' but with added excitement brought on by Joel's more diverse vocal range.

Being As An Ocean have been more experimental with their sound, blending a number of genres to their core sound and, on occasions, even drifting away from their core genre of melodic hardocre and almost completely removing breakdowns and guttural vocals to give the record a more post-hardcore sound to it. The opening tracks 'Little Richie' and 'Ain't Nobody Perfect' perfectly capture the albums concept instantly through the atmospheric guitars and no holds barred alternative rock style. The best example of BAAO still being able to pull off their classic blends of melodic hardcore and spoken word are 'The Zealot's Blindfold' which shows off vocalists Joel and Michael's ability to create the perfect contrast between the clean and unclean vocals without the transitions sounding forced, which is a common occurrence in modern hardcore sub-genres. 'The World As A Stage' shows off Being As An Ocean's core melodic hardcore skills, with an intro that resembles that of fellow bands Hundredth or Counterparts, with a fast tempo start which slows into a mellow more clean vocal lead middle which fades out beautifully.

Though there are many great examples of spoken word in this album, there are a few tracks that do fall flat, in particular 'St. Peter', which sees the lyrics completely eclipsed by the instrumentals, this also stands out as one of the few tracks where McGough really fails to shine. The other track on this album that falls short is 'Sleeping Iscarii' a song that plain and simply bored me, unlike every other song on this album there wasn't a stand out moment throughout the track for me, this is also the only track where the lyrics failed to grab my attention.

Very few negatives aside, 'Being As An Ocean' shows a more established sound which helps it shine just as bright as their début, and shows a definite improvement from their previous album. Being As An Ocean are once again just a few steps off pure musical nirvana.

8/10

/ MELODIC HARDCORE / SPOKEN WORD / POST-HARDCORE /

FAV TRACKS: - Little Richie - Ain't Nobody Perfect - The Zealot's Blindfold - The World As A Stage - ...And Their Consequence -
LEAST FAV TRACKS: - St. Peter - Sleeping Iscarii -