Band:	Oceano
Album:	Living Chaos
Style:	Deathcore
Release date:	August 2024
A review by:	omne metallum

01. Wasted Life
02. Mass Produced
03. Darkness Rising
04. Into The Flames
05. Wounds Never Healed
06. Interlude
07. The Price Of Pain
08. Living Chaos
09. Broken Curse

Coming of age at last. 

Deathcore has changed a lot since Oceano last released an album, with 2017's Revelation landing into a genre that was about to undergo an evolution in sound and style, one that threatened to leave Oceano behind. Luckily for them, Oceano have produced their best work to date, an album that updates their sound without abandoning their roots, and sees the band finally release something that matches their long properly untapped potential. 

The problem for bands like Oceano is that they are faced with a dilemma: become followers in the wake of bands they helped inspire, or stick to their guns and hope there is still an audience left for their traditional style. Living Chaos sees the band capture the best of both worlds, mixing in greater atmospherics and broader soundscapes to evolve beyond being mere breakdown merchants. 

This approach pays dividends from the off, with the second (and teaser track released all the way back in 2022) song "Mass Produced" being no less hard-hitting than before, but with more melodic flourishes and technical elements to broaden the band's palette. The following "Darkness Rising" uses orchestral sampling to a tee, adding a depth that brings gravitas to proceedings. How Warren still has vocals after all these years (and after recording "The Price Of Pain") is quite the achievement. The jewel in the crown, though, is the electronic-infused "Wounds Never Healed", a song that blends samples perfectly with a hard-hitting driving sound, while also bridging their past and present approaches into one potent, powerful package. 

Smith takes inspiration from the djenty, technical sound of bands like Shadow Of Intent, with a guitar tone that is not solely downtuned for pure crunching power, but also a metallic sharpness on tracks, like the closing "The Broken Curse". While the rest of the band don't get many moments to stand out, as a unit they manage to balance power, melody and infusing drama into proceedings perfectly. 

At 32 minutes, Living Chaos is on the shorter side, though you get the impression the band did this to ensure the album was packed only with their strongest material; however, I'm surprised the title track made the cut, as it is a step down compared to the rest of the surrounding album. It's a strange duality between knowing the trade-off for the short runtime is only to pack it with their best material, yet at the same time being left wanting more. 

While Oceano have long floated on the periphery of the best deathcore bands back since the genre was in its infancy, they never broke into the ranks with the forerunners at the time. With Living Chaos, they look to make up for lost time and take advantage of the more open field that is the deathcore scene today, with an album packed with some of their best work to date.