Oceano – Living Chaos | Album Review

With the modern wave of deathcore steadily drawing more eyes towards it, Oceano kick the doors down and set the room alight with Living Chaos, their first album in seven years.

The last few years have seen a renewed interest in the world of deathcore. Fresh blood in the form of rising heavyweights Lorna Shore have pulled viral interest from TikTok into a resurgence in the genre and upcoming artists like Brand Of Sacrifice and Distant continue to further establish a place for Deathcore in the 2020’s. At one point having the reputation as one of the most dangerous shows in scene, today Oceano stand as one of the last remaining sub-genre titans that haven’t plainly stepped into pastures further afield like their contemporaries Whitechapel and Job For A Cowboy.  

Up until the release of Revelation in 2017, Oceano were remarkably consistent with their musical output, their first five albums all arriving within two years of each other. Living Chaos comes after an extended time away through the pandemic and out the other side. Initially teasing this new vision way back in 2022 with teaser single “Mass Produced”, showing off the band’s intention to further explore different progressive and ambient elements to draft into their colossal deathcore skeleton. Its been a slow drip feed of shows and unquenchable anticipation from their eager fanbase, but Living Chaos is finally here.

“Wasted Life” wastes no time starting the album off in an uneasy fashion. An eerie instrumental slowly infects samples of day to day life, quickly giving way to savage vocals and pulverising triplet chugs. It quickly establishes Oceano’s bread and butter of suffocating brutality. The aforementioned “Mass Produced” sits comfortably as the second track, expanding on the brutal instrumentals. “Darkness Rising” is a big standout in the track list, employing a massive melodic hook in the chorus that cuts through the earth-pounding breakdowns the band are known for. In contrast, “Into The Flames” is a no bullshit helping of relentless punishment, almost falling into nu-metal territory for a moment with the rhythmic vocal delivery and bouncier groove riffs, before languishing in tech-death chaos and a volcanic breakdown.

Living Chaos doesn’t remain as a monument to a band left to the wayside, it shows some continued growth in their time away. Following on from Revelation, the band continue to delve deeper into the electronics space to flesh out their instrumentation, further working in some further technical aspects, flirting with some milder metal core sensibilities and employing elements of post-rock/metal; wholeheartedly embracing a keen sense of melody compared to previous efforts from the band. Despite being a brief reprieve, “Interlude” showcases these kind of influences as a stand-alone breather from the punishing tracklist. It’s almost as if they wanted to soften the edges of their ultra-confrontation brand of extreme music, without deadening their absolute core.

The album was written without a drummer in the studio, with the band programming the drum parts. This can often lead to unrealistic and inhuman sounding drum tracks, but Oceano have kept things mostly grounded and they work instep with the technical riffs and angular breakdowns without going needlessly overboard. On other plains the band sound similarly powerful, opting for the modern processed production that has always been a hallmark of the genre. Adam Warren’s vocals are monstrous as always, feeling as though they could shatter bricks through sheer force of will at points. The range of Scott Smith’s guitar tones and ambient passages are balanced well with the unbridled ferocity constantly bubbling below the surface. Chris Wagner’s bass has some moments to standout, but at points its almost lost within the punchy low-end heft of the drum samples and ferocious chug of the guitars, mostly sitting comfortably to bolster the walls of distorted palm-mutes.

Released as a single signalling the arrival of a new album “Wounds Never Heal” builds itself around an arpeggiated synth sample in the intro and continues to explore anthemic lead lines and shifting rhythmic madness. As a well orchestrated contrast, final single “The Price Of Pain” is probably the most cut and dry deathcore track on the album, a slab of technical guitar runs and monolithic walls of chug, playing with tempos in veering wildly, adding to the well cultivated sense of chaos and discomfort sewn across the album. It closes in a powerful way with Warren leaving his guttural roars echoing alone. The final two tracks attempt to wrap things up neatly, title track “Living Chaos” sits as the shortest track proper on the album, embracing its name sake with poignant and hopeless feeling lead melodies sitting atop the apocalyptic world-ending stomp. 

Album closer “Broken Curse” leaves a little to be desired. Being the longest track on offer, it takes plenty of time to continue to establish an atmosphere before allowing for one more dramatic and violent break. There is a lot going on across the five plus minutes, tiny details and hooks from the guitar work with plenty more insane drum fills. The glitchy, erratic final breakdown feels like it might lead to a catastrophic ending, but when all is said and done the album just kind of ends there and then with no real payoff to the swelling tension, feeling like something was supposed to follow on for a truer and complete finale.

 Living Chaos looks set to be everything Oceano fans have been waiting for, returning with a renewed inspiration to hone their sound even tighter and continuing to explore the fringes of the genre. There are still some minor points of contention here and there, but for the most part the band have easily delivered another welcome helping of expansive deathcore across its thirty five minute run.