Under The Ocean are an Italian five-piece, formed in 2006 in the city of Parma as Firstborn Underocean. In the beginning they played a modern form of Metalcore / Deathcore, cf. their debut album Gates (2011, shortly after the changed their moniker from Firstborn Underocean into the current one). The success was enormous, at least in their home country, and the band was able to play live on stage with the likes of Nasum, Hour Of Penance, Vomitory, Malevolent Creation and Entombed a. o.
The quintet, i.e. guitar players Andrea Tortorelli and Tomasz Jan Iemma, drummer Fabio Bersani, singer Isacco Pattini, and bassist Rocco Casali, recorded this new EP at the end of 2013, and it gets released with assistance / support of Italian Extreme Metal label Drown Within Records. It’s a twenty minute-experience divided into four parts, showing a natural evolution this band underwent. Still they sound very modern in approach, but the Metalcore-aspects of the early years have, and thank, well, any godly entity whatsoever, for that! Nowadays, Under The Ocean play rather Blast / Tech-Death / Deathcore-alike stuff; still modern it does sound, yet without those hyper-kinetic, exaggerated constructions. I do not mean that this stuff isn’t hyper-kinetic anymore – because it still is! But on Dark Waters, Under The Ocean sound more, much more adult and credible! The compositions are better structured, there’s more variety and persuasion, and less pathetically wanting to be. This time the songs are more intelligently written, and much more professionally performed.