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http://www.senbaltimore.com/blogs/agt/agt_reviews/century---black-ocean.shtmlCentury - Black Ocean
The zeitgeist of metal is to look down the nose at metalcore, but such charlatans fall silent as the hammer falls on "Equus" and Carson Slovak's screams choke the windpipe of the self-proclaimed know-it-alls.
I'm way behind on reviewing a lot of the records I've been meaning to get to, but there are a few good reasons: (1) I've been editing several episodes of the Any Given Tuesday podcast (keep your eyes open for the next few episodes, including this week's #14), (2) I got a new job and it's keeping me kind of busy, and (3) there are some unbelievably good albums in my CD carousel that I just can't bring myself to take out. Along with the potentially career-defining closer Oblivion Beckons from West Virginia's Byzantine, there's this little album from Century called Black Ocean.
Released April 29, Black Ocean is the follow-up to 2006's Faith and Failure. Unyielding in its thirty-three minutes onslaught of screaming and amplifier-blowing picking, the album feels like it ends as soon as it starts, the listener's heart rate somewhere in the range of the tachyarrhythmic. The zeitgeist of metal is to look down the nose at metalcore, but such charlatans fall silent as the hammer falls on "Equus" and Carson Slovak's screams choke the windpipe of the self-proclaimed know-it-alls.
The aptly named "Monolith" is a monstrous bone-crusher and the best random sample of what the album has to offer. A sonorous composition that reaches out in all directions, melody shares stage time with a dirge of chugging, riffing, and skin-pounding. The title track is so heavy, my iPod loaded with Century tracks is now a deadly bludgeoning tool that I can sneak into any school or public building.
Visit www.blackoceanalbum.com to see the high-bandwidth companion piece to the album.