Review Summary: 2005 was the most glorious year for metalcore; whitebelt was realized, deathcore was starting to get real cool, At The Gatescore everywhere, and Stray From The Path put out one of the most interesting, underrated albums in the genre.
Everybody knows Stray From The Path for their groove, the Rage Against The Machine vibes, and of course the bleghs. Not a lot of people really payed attention to them before they went into that vein, which is pretty disappointing, because they were always a great band. Our Oceania is way ahead of its time, it's chaotic yet melodic, but not in the At The Gates riffing manner, more like it was interspersed with atmospheric interludes, well done clean parts, and ambient electronic parts. The best analogy I can think of is Curl Up And Die-meets-post-rock-meets-sassy-hardcore. Anybody who's mosh was inspired by this was advanced AF and deserves an applaud.
It's unfortunate that at the time the scene was overloaded with so many trendy AF scene bands (many that were good) when there were groups like SFTP, Embrace The End, and Quell bringing such downright interesting, progressive metalcore to the table. If I could build a time machine, I would go back to the year 2005 and give myself a copy of this album and tell me to jock it as hard as possible, because it's seriously that next level. My 14 year old self would then proceed to blast Formaldehyde Kiss and spinkick everything in a 10 mile radius, whilest rocking a Reinventing Your Exit themed Underoath shirt. If you're not all about their new stuff (which is pretty cool for what it is), and like artistic hardcore this is definitely something you should check out.
