September 29, 2003 - Oceansize and Effloresce

Six days after my last release a new band joins my library when Oceansize released their debut album "Effloresce" on September 29, 2003. But who is Oceansize? They are a five-piece progressive/alternative rock band from Manchester, England consisting of Mike Vennart (guitar, lead vocals), Steve Durose and Richard Ingram (guitars), Jon Ellis (bass, keyboards) and Mark Heron (drums, percussion). Oceansize play a style of rock that definitely falls under alternative, but there are several long songs and at over 75 minutes they are pretty progressive as well. Let's see what Oceansize is all about!

The album kicks off with "I Am The Morning" and it's got some space-y guitars that are slow and smooth as we hear all three guitarists and some keyboards combine for a psychedelic/progressive opening. When the drums kick in one of the guitarists goes a bit heavier and it's an interesting mix of sounds that all sounds pretty cool! This opening song is actually instrumental, but it's a pretty smooth and solid way to introduce us to the band. The end of the song leads right into "Catalyst" where we immediately get git with some distorted guitars that sound pretty crazy and then things devolve into some back-and-forth chugging guitars that sound pretty cool. I love this heavy streak and it makes for a mean and pretty sweet main riff, especially when the third guitarist adds some cool lighter stuff overtop. We hear Vennart sing for the first time and he has a very British, pretty smooth singing voice that fits the mood pretty nicely. He shows off a bit of range in the loud chorus, but his quieter, softer singing in the verse is nicely done. He even lets out one scream in the second chorus, and it was brief but great! The latter half of the song is mostly instrumental, but there's some cool stop-and-start stuff and things sound decently heavy. We even get a fast solo overtop towards the end and I don't know which guitarist it is, but it's pretty awesome! A pretty cool song! Track 3 is "One Day All This Could Be Yours" and Ellis plays a light but epic piano riff and Heron adds some nice drums to the mix. Ellis changes to bass and plays a super low and cool bass line while we hear some trippy and cool guitars overtop. Vennart sings a soft verse that matches the mood nicely and after a couple minutes a heavier riff starts to creep into the mix, until it completely takes over! It's a pretty groovy and sweet metal riff that becomes the backbone of the rest of the song and these guys are great at blending some heavy stuff with lighter, trippy stuff; another solid tune! The next track is the ten minute "Massive Bereavement" and it starts slow with some space-y and cool percussion by Heron. One guitarist starts a simple rhythm riff, another comes one with an interesting new riff, and then the third guitarist provides another cool riff for another light, trippy and cool combination of sounds. Ellis fills things out with some solid bass as well and Vennart provides another space-y verse to match the mood pretty perfectly. Around four minutes in they nicely and progressively shift to a new riff with a dark and creepy backdrop. Then the distorted and wicked guitars fire off and things sound really sweet! The third guitarist adds a great heavy riff as well and all this sounds pretty awesome! They nicely and seamlessly shift into a new verse as Vennart sings overtop a cool light new riff. This morphs into a fantastic new heavy riff with all kinds of great guitar, bass and some nice yelling by Vennart too! Everything from here on out is pretty excellent as words are Falling short for all the cool stuff that's going on! It's definitely my favourite so far, a very well done 10 minute song, with the latter six minutes being pretty fucking killer! What an ending as well! Track 5 is "Rinsed" and it's another instrumental song and everything is very slow and dreamy. It's easily one of the duller songs on the album; it's not bad, but it's not all that exciting either as they are content to stick to the dreamy main drag for the whole four minutes. Up next is "You Wish" and Heron plays a cool, soft drum beat as the trippy guitars start up and Vennart sings another quiet but smooth verse. After a quiet first verse and chorus one guitarist starts up a nice heavier riff and Vennart's next verse and chorus are shouted much louder and things sound pretty good! This louder version sounds pretty sweet and things continue to sound pretty hard rock right up to the end of this six minute song! It started alow, but definitely picked up, another pretty cool tune! Track 7 is "Remember Where You Are" and Heron has another light but pretty cool drum beat to kick us off and then the guitars start to join in one by one, each with their own quiet, creepy and epic riff. Vennart sings a light verse that matches the mood nicely and things sound quietly epic until they reach a stop-and-start new riff. The three guitarists don't get in each other's way and weave a cool main riff. They use quiet and loud expertly on this song and eventually it culminates with a pretty wicked guitar solo! After this awesome solo they close out the song with a creepy new riff with some cool piano by Ellis. Yet another pretty solid song! The next track is "Amputee" and they jump right into a loud and epic riff with one guitarist playing super fast while the others keep the pace with some cool slower stuff. The verse is pretty epic with Vennart sounding solid and everyone combining nicely. The fast guitar returns for the chorus and things sound space-y, epic, and pretty awesome! After the second round they calm things down for a bit, then ramp back into a nice final round. I would've preferred a solo instead of the calm part, but I'm really being picky, it was a great song! Track 9 is the shortest on the album at just under three minutes and it's called "Unravel". Ellis leads the way with some slow but solid piano and Heron adds some echo-y drums behind it. This is a pretty space-y and trippy Interlude with Ellis playing some cool piano to keep the pace while everyone else floats on. Up next is "Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs" and one guitarist starts us off with a nice light riff, Heron and another guitarist enter next, then Ellis and the final guitarist complete another space-y and dreamy main riff with Vennart singing another typical mood-fitting verse. This song is eight and a half minutes long and this opening riff lasts about three and a half minutes before the volume gets turned up and one guitarist starts to shred a bit with some nice faster stuff! The mood becomes even more epic before the volume goes back down, but some cool new guitar emerges and plays nicely overtop the dreamy backdrop. The song seems like it's starting to fade out, but there's still about two minutes left of things very, very slowly trailing off in the distance. Not as exciting a song, but a solid psychedelic one. Track 11 is "Saturday Morning Breakfast Show" and it's got a very slow, droning opening with Heron providing the entertainment with some decent slow, epic drums. The guitars provide all manner of trippy noises and things build and build for about a minute, until we're dropped off the cliff for a quiet first verse. It's a pretty interesting, wave-y verse riff and Vennart sounds solid overtop of some well done space-y guitars. After about three minutes they start to build like the opening, and this time it leads to a pretty sweet instrumental new riff. It's heavy, it's got some cool guitars from all three guitarists and the next two and a half minutes sound pretty awesome! Then they nicely shift to another new riff, one with a dreamy guitar riff leading the way, but with some pretty cool bass and rhythm guitar behind it while Vennart holds some super long and high notes. Things suddenly snap into loud mode once again and I love the instant takeoff as we're right back in the awesomeness seamlessly! The ending is absolutely phenomenal and this was a pretty sweet nine minute song for the most part! The final song on the album is "Long Forgotten" and one guitarist plays this really trippy and cool "riff" (it's not typical by any means) that permeates this opening until another guitarist starts up a light riff and then we hear some cello that sounds super dark and great! It fits in really nicely with this slow style and eventually Vennart starts to sing a soft verse and he's great at singing perfectly for the mood. Everything sounds really smooth and solid until about the five minute mark of another nine minute song, then things get quiet and psychedelic once again with some pretty epic and cool guitars. Ellis keeps the pace with some pretty solid bass and it almost sounds like an Explosions in the Sky song, but with Vennart's long-held vocals hanging overtop. A whole strings section now joins in as they slowly and epicly jam out the end of this one, until the last 30 seconds is just a trippy noise on repeat until the album finally fades to a close.

That is the end of "Effloresce" and I thought it was a pretty solid debut album by Oceansize! They use their three guitarists very nicely and they've perfectly nailed their progressive vibe of shifting between light, dreamy, and psychedelic, to some pretty hard rock and even metal riffs! I can't wait to hear where Oceansize go from here!