OCEANO’S ANDREW MIKHAIL GETS DEEP
Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 4:15pm by Gary Suarez
By now, it should be crystal clear to everyone just how I feel about Oceano. Considering the response to my 5/5 review of the Chicago band’s debut Depths, it seems only fitting that the day I take over MetalSucks is the day I get to share with you my interview with guitarist Andrew Mikhail, who opens up about illegal downloading, being labeled “deathcore”, and CDs as art.
Oceano has been frequently likened to Whitechapel, both in a complimentary and dismissive capacity. Do you consider this a fair comparison?
Not really, I personally think that people say that because our music STYLES are similar. not the music itself like some say, but I guess stuff like that will happen when two bands share the same influences for their music. We are actually good friends with whitechapel and I always joke about that stuff to them, because THEY don’t even think we sound the same. Heavy and metal.
You’ve spent a fair bit of 2009 on the road and that’s continuing with the Winds Of Plague tour. How is this lifestyle treating you?
Honestly, its not enough. We love what we do and we have a good time doing what we love.
Are you satisfied with the overall response to Depths? Are you okay with the subgenre tag ‘deathcore’ being applied to your music?
Were very happy with the results from “Depths” this year. For a debut album it has exceeded our expectations and couldn’t be more happier. Not much to say there, but music wise, I’d classify oceano as death metal music with a hardcore mentality. We play death metal influenced music with the passion that you only get from hardcore music and performance. But, for convenience sake we’ve come to terms with the term “deathcore” when being described on print or such. I’d just consider us metal for even more convenience! (Insert metal elitist comments below, because we SUPPOSEDLY “don’t know what REAL metal is” haha).
Similar to that of other acts in the deathcore scene, a majority of Oceano’s fanbase are in their teens and early twenties, a group that is particularly comfortable with illegal downloading of music. What is your opinion on this phenomenon?
I’ve said it once and ill say it again, music is art. When you buy a cd at the store you get more than music, you get the full work of art. When doing so, you can fully understand and appreciate the message and concept of every album you buy. With technology changing, it bums me out that everything is slowly turning to online format for the reason of convenience. The messages will be lost in translation, and will be misunderstood. But when it comes to downloading I don’t care though, download music. Most bands I talk to don’t care, as long as you listen, understand, and come out to be apart of something more than filesharing. Something real.
Has the band begun work on a follow-up to Depths?
Yes, we have started writing our next album in our down time between all these tours. Its simply, hands down, most aggressive material we’ve written to the date. We’ve got a lot more to be pissed off about this time. ;)
MetalSucks readers have had quite a bit to say about Oceano. Do you have anything you’d like to say to them?
Whether you love us or you hate us, you help keep us going! thank you guys and see you on the road!
-GS
[Gary Suarez does the best inhales. He usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]
This should be good.
AS GOOD AS FUCKING CANCER
i lolled.
first.
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
INCONCEIVABLE!
Do you say that when you cum before your GF does?
“Do you say that when you cum before your BF does?”
Fixed.
Queer bait for dick eaters.
So if I like this band, I’m a queer that eats dick?
Before I start arguing with you, I just want to be sure I’m clear on what you’re suggesting.
I think we’ve officially hit rock bottom, folks. At least when Ziltoid ran the site for a day he had a couple of redeeming posts amongst the shit.
Stop swinging from Ziltoid’s dick.
Swinging from his dick? The link to Free Metal Albums was useful, and the Arthur Von Nagel interview was quite informative. The rest was shit.
Yeah…. This guy Suarez sucks! But Zilfucked?? C`mon! his day was even worse!
Those bands were pure crap! Deja de mamarle la pija muchacho!
omg its unholy vortex!
Hey, At least I got Cormorant out of Ziltoid’s day. Can’t say the same for Gary’s day. Although this one is much more amusing.
My day was pure excellence. It’s not my fault that people here can’t get satire or understand the true sophistication of a majestic band like \\\Maytag.
i enjoyed your interview with arthur von nagel and that site with all the free metal albums. that was great.
That was great, and that was all. 3 joke bands in one day is ridiculous.
\\\Maytag transcends the label “joke band.”
Pfffft… ///Maytag DEFINES the label “joke band”.
Nope, “transcends” is the correct term.
Yeah, I don’t mind your hosting. You brought Cormorant to the forefront, where they deserve to be, so in my view all other sins are forgiven.
Are YOU sodomized by satan? I mean, did you make that page and those songs?
and ///maytag was pure genius
haha, no, I am not. I don’t have te proper recording equipment. But yes, \\\Maytag is so incredibly genius…I love that band with all my heart. And I hate Sunn O))).
You are quite the bitch pussy.
Bwahahahhhaaa! Suck it crybabies.
letting this idiot run the site for the day: worst idea ever.
You’re the worst idea ever.
i lol’d
i really like oceano musicly not so much the vocals just a little to much pig squeels for me
Metalsucks’ Gary Suarez gets deep (in Oceano’s ass)
How original.
Good interview….can’t wait to hear their new stuff…
It’s good to know that at least theyre not a bunch of pussies who would just quit after
being mocked, or shit on by almost every reader on this site…lol
I think what we all need to remember is, “There is NO such thing as BAD publicity” haha
Keep it up Gary!
Gary takes over for a day and ruins Metalsucks for a day.
They should do a poll to see who actually enjoys Gary Suarez’s post’s. I bet over half the votes would be for “sucks dick.”
That sentence made no sense
How the fuck do we keep them going if we fucking hate them?
I’ll take this one, guys.
It’s simple, really. The more you hate a band like Oceano, the more people are going to want to check them out for themselves. Since they’re actually a pretty damn good metal band, people are getting into them – buying the new album, seeing them on tour, etc. Hell, even if they’re just downloading one song simply to jump onto this new “I hate Oceano” thing that’s going on, that’s still one more person checking them out. And that’s one more person listening to their band.
Get it?
That would make sense, if people couldn’t download for free. It would make even more sense got paid by the amount of people listening to their band, even if they thought it sucked.
but they don’t…
Oceano r000lllzzz! I hope that they go on tour with Brokencyde, and the reunited Creed, and that Metalsucks will sponsor this epic musical awesomenss!!! woot woot
lern 2 troll
a) Your username is crap. Opeth is better than anything you’re listening to right now, or will ever listen to. Pull your head out of your ass and listen to some real music.
b) I understand that you’re attempting to be sarcastic. But it doesn’t work. Oceano’s great. Absolutely great. Brokencyde is crap – I’ll agree with you there. And Creed wasn’t that bad in their day, and the new stuff isn’t terrible. So that’s one out of three for you. Since you don’t understand music (see point a), that’s not too bad, my friend.
c) I’d actually go to that tour. I’m all about the random, and that would be an insanely random concert. The pit would be fun to see if nothing else.
I don’t like Oceano (at all, not even a little bit) but hey, it turns out that the guy in the interview above seems like a really nice dude with absolutely no pretension whatsoever.
If given the choice between hanging out with him or with any one of you tr00er-than-tr00 oblivious crybaby meathead fuckwits in the comments, I know which one I’d choose.
At the risk or destroying any credibility (past, present and future), I am a HUGE fan of what Oceano do. To my ears, and i invoke my right to personal opinion here, they are unlike any of the other bands that I have seen pigeonholed as ‘Deathcore’ . Their sound has a menacing quality which prevents me from skipping over them, sure on the surface they demonstrate many of the symptoms we associate with this new phenomena, but I honestly believe they are onto something. There is a maturity in the composition of ‘Depths’, the songs aren’t technical masterpieces, showing restraint for the sake of brutality and crushing atmospherics. I could be wrong about them, it could be a chemical imbalance that screws with my taste in metal every now and then. I don’t go in for things of this ilk as a rule so I hope that real readers will forgive me for enjoying ‘Depths” right along side a drop o’ Tesseract or Skeletonwitch, and maybe just maybe, give Oceano another go.
+1 for the win. Finally, someone who isn’t jumping onto this fucking Oceano hatred bandwagon.
Oceano is simply great stuff. Absolutely great. Anyone who can’t see that doesn’t understand metal.
I’ve honestly tried to like deathcore. I really have. I mean, as blood runs black was the segway for me to get into death metal from thrash and melodic metal. But other than that, and Conducting From the Grave ( who i’ve supported since before they were signed because of their awesome melodies) I just can’t do it.
Every time I see something like Oceano, I go listen to it. When Srgt D recommended abbacab I tried them out, too. But, I keep coming back to the one thing– whats the point? The breakdown is so annoying. It’s like a slam, but fail. Just one staccato note. And it’s often VERY VERY slow. I mean, some of the melo-death-esque riffs are awesome, but the breakdowns just destroy the songs for me.
Does anyone else feel this way? I mean, I see potential in some of these bands that have some really technical riffs, but then they go ruin their songs. Is it just playing to a sense of popularity? Or what?
I believe the word you were looking for is ’segue’… a Segway is one of those scooter things that people drive around. Although now that I think about it, that does provide an interesting mental picture…
Yeah, most deathcore sucks. I was able to listen to the last Born Of Osiris album because they threw in some prog elements and moved away from straight-on deathcore, and I actually kinda liked the new Arsonists Get All The Girls album for the same reason… the new Winds Of Plague had some potential until the symphonic stuff stopped and the normal music started. But decent deathcore is a very, very rare thing.
Nah. Segway is an actual word. It’s a modern form is segue. I did a report on it.
But, I found some cool deathcore bands that focus on the melodies more than breakdowns. Which I like. A breakdown isn’t bad as long as it makes sense, and doesnt last minute(s)
I always thought Unearth wrote the best breakdowns…most of the time it was more than one note, and had other rhythms or quicker sections to it, but it maintained an overall breakdown pace and always still felt really heavy
Yeah, with Unearth I never really noticed the breakdowns. Granted, Unearth has lost my interest since ‘The Oncoming Storm’, but they were pretty good at breakdowns.
Oh man, I love unearth. The melodies they put over their breakdowns turn the breakdowns into harmony parts.
You don’t like hardcore-style breakdowns, that’s the deal. I usually don’t either, unless they are really well done, and that usually only happens in actual HARDCORE songs (not deathcore). Sounds like you gave it a shot, and you just like straight-up death metal better, nothing wrong with that!
Yo sarge. Can I get your opinions on some melodic based deathcore?
Conducting from the grave
Within the Ruins
Brother Von Doom
and
Wretched.
I really like this stuff, because they use their breakdowns to back up interesting melodies. I also found I dig the stuff As Blood Runs Black has put out.
It’s not my thing, like at ALL, but I guess they’re good at it? I hate Iron Maiden, At The Gates, etc, so I don’t dig this style either…
Ah ok.
I DLd the Oceano album, it is actually very good- better than I gave them credit for at first. Approved.
Music is just for entertainment, any other thought for it and the point gets lost.
Genres are for cowards. I wish Oceano the best of luck with their endeavors.
That TOTALLY isn’t a psuedo-intellectual cop-out.
That first sentence is the most retarded shit I have read all day. The Second is great.
The Red Chord > all other deathcore.
So the Red Chord is “deathcore” now? Fucking hell i hate you infants and your genres.