Ocoai – The Electric Hand (2011)

Ocoai are an awesome surprise. Guitarist and engineer/producer Travis Kammeyer and drummer Tim Smith met in in the summer of 2006 and wanted to try something different, they wanted to be the loudest and heaviest band around. And the sound of Ocoai is kind of muddy, sludgy, spreading into multi-layered dimensions, imagine Moody Blues jamming around with Down or Sigur Rós playing some Mastodom songs. I hate labels and labeling music, but this is kind of cinematic Metal. Ambiental, spacy constructions, ingenious use of the cello, gentle guitar tunes or crushing riffs and noisy explosions completing and overlapping each other in a nice, natural flow. Without a vocalist they managed to fill up the wide spaces, but still, I believe a powerful throat can take them much further. In any case, not a James LaBrie copy I had in mind, but eventually someone with the qualities and abilities of John Bush (Armored Saint, Anthrax).

Travis Kammeyer – guitar and engineering , Joe Armstrong – guitar, Cody Ledford- cello, Bo Dugger – bass and Tim Smith – drums (who had replaced Joey Metcalf in 2009) delivered one more interesting journey into the fields of the instruMe(n)tal music. It’s something worth to listen. From the beautiful tunes which starts “Waking Fear” to the quiet ending tunes of “Morte Audaciter” this is a colorful trip with seven fascinating paths.

Ocoai – on MySpace
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