Oceansize - 'Music For Nurses EP' (Beggars Banquet)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
No, not a benefit EP for the hard-working fall-bearers of a struggling National Health Service, although it could probably raise enough cash to inject a healthy glow into the project if Oceansize manage to shift as many copies of this as they rightly should. With guitar sounds this huge, not even a pesky hospital super bug would stand a chance of resisting.
Enough of the analogies, and down to the rock - for few so-called indie rock bands at the minute can get away with occasionally sounding this unashamedly metal, properly heavy both in the sense of density of sound and how this intense, thick matter weighs so heavy on the soul. Instead of just pummelling the attentive, they have the audacity to attempt to soothe in between also; with some marvellously intricate guitar twinkling and mock-operatic wails belying the wall of noise that always lurks menacingly round the corner.
Every moment of Oceansize calm is a lie; it's the eye of the storm, a short respite between segments of obliteration. Occasionally, they'll use nearly a whole song to do this - following the full-on attack of opener 'One By None' with 'Paper Champion', a piece so considered in its peril that if Tool come close to anything like it on their next LP, they'll be giving themselves a well deserved pat on the back. 'Drag The 'Nal', too, douses the flames left by its predecessor in what is essentially just an enchanting intro to the marvellously titled 'Dead Dogs An' All Sorts', which, for once, meticulously builds up its sonic attack rather than relying on the element of surprise.
Somewhere in the midst of all seven minutes of the haphazard time-signature changes and drawn out wonderment that is the closing 'As The Smoke Clears' though, there's a cracking tune. Fear not however, for it ends in madness. With this lot, it always does.
Artists in this article: Oceansize
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