...And Oceans, now known as Havoc Unit, was a black metal/industrial metal band from Finland. They released five albums under the ...And Oceans moniker. This album, Cypher, was their 5th and final release before changing to the name Havoc Unit. With this album what you get is pretty much an even amount of black metal and industrial metal. You get black metal vocals and the normal black metal drumming, which is usually blast beats for people that dont know. Then you get industrial guitar riffs and the weird industrial like sound effects.
I'll start with the vocals because they are probably the best thing about this album. The vocal style used on this album is kind of hard to explain. The vocalist (I think his name is Kenny, but I'm not sure) uses a mix of the normal black metal rasp and some kind of weird screech. The best example of the screeching vocals is on Debris: The Magenta Harvest: Liquid Flesh. I can't say "well if you like so and so you will like ...And Oceans vocalist" because he is very unique. He has his own style that no other band that I've heard has ever really done before. As for the regular black metal vocals, they're good, but a little bit weak. Its more of a shout than a scream really. It doesn't really bring the album down at all.
As for all the instruments, they are all really easy to describe. Either they're going fast or they're going really slow. Not slow in a doom sense, but boring slow. Thats what brings the album down a little bit for me. When you have the blast beats and fast industrial like riffs all in your face at once its very interesting and sounds great, but when they all start to slow down (once again I point out Debris: The Magenta Harvest: Liquid Flesh) it all gets pretty boring. Some songs like Picturesque: Cataclysm Saviour: And the Little Things That Make Us Smile are pretty much fast and really good throughout, but some songs that have you completed paying attention and that you're interested in, sometimes those songs slow down from the madness of the instruments and kind of lose you.
All in all this album is really good. This is more interesting than the crap that The Kovenant has been putting out lately and its pretty much the same style. If you like black metal or industrial you will most likely be interested in this album. Just be prepared to be a tiny bit dissapointed. Other than when the album slows up, its a really good album and if it wasnt for that fact, this probably would've gotten a 4.5 at least. For the best work by this band, check out The Symmetry of I - The Circle of O.
