Band : Oceana Company
Album Title : For The Boatman
Label : Spacejam Records
Distributor : Suburban - Bertus
Release Date : 2008
Review : CD

After a 3-track EP (read review 25-03-2008) For The Boatman is the band’s first full length effort and it hits all the right notes;heavy  rock with a lot of feelings, beautiful vocal melodies and songs ranging from stoner to prog to psych to indie can be found here. Anekdoten, Queens of the Stoneage, Motorpsycho, Hypnos69 and Porcupine Tree in almost equal amounts make the album feel varied but also give it a somewhat uneven flow. Mostly the album stays in a comfortable mid-tempo pace. The album impresses at first, but only really opens up after about a dozen spins.

Musically the album is melodic, ear catching and suitably complex at the same time. Some fantastic musicians inhabit the album, meaning that close listening is rewarded. Matthijs Herder brings the needed emotion to the sometimes hard to sing lyrics. At first some vocal lines, especially in the first couple of songs, sound off, but with repeated listens the melodies evolve and work very well. A very important instrument on For The Boatman is the mellotron, providing the sorrowful melody. “Trenchfever” and “Imaginary time” with great guitarwork are more or less straight ahead heavy songs that are instantly memorable. Both have captivating parts and strong harmonies.”Silent” and “A wayfarer’s travel” switch from alluring mellotron-led verses to heavy and powerful sections while “The big sky” includes a brilliant mellotron Anekdoten-like part that leads perfectly to the end. The way the song keeps on building is great and there is a slight epic feel to this one.

While all songs are not nearly cream of the crop material, I can't say there's anything here that I truly disliked or skipped out of boredom.

88/100

Cosmicmasseur.