review by: Roberto Martinelli

Unfortunately, another extreme metal band has fallen to the emasculating power that is Century Media Records. On Finnish ...And Oceans' second and previous album, on French label Season of Mist, and entitled The Symmetry of I, the Circle of O, the band displayed a unique sound in the black metal genre. While A.M.G.O.D (don't make me write the whole name in it's entirety again, please) does still in fact sound like ...And Oceans, it's no longer black metal, and no longer good, either.

Obviously, you can tell from a mile away that an album with a title like this one is going to sound very self-absorbed and try to be ever so avantgarde. So what's the problem? Well, I'm guessing that the success of the wackiness of The Symmetry of I, the Circle of O, which had song titles like "The Vagabond and the Swan of Three Heads," has gone to the heads of the band, and they have gotten much too into out-avantgarding themselves.

One of the main tools that ...And Oceans use to this end is the ever-dreaded-by-metal-fans element of techno. (the last track on A.M.G.O.D. is entirely techno). The techno element, coupled with the dense high-tech aura of the bloated production, sounds pompous. In the end, it just feels smarmy. Too bad. I really liked this band and was long awaiting this album.