Slow - Oceans album review

As the esteemed Blue Planet II confirms through its progressive camera work, the deep sea and its many inhabitants are truly mesmerising. The untold mysteries surrounding what else lurks below the waves’ crests can set your imagination in flux, so while you try to contemplate the unfathomable, Slow’s oceanic funeral doom will make for a pretty non-intrusive accompaniment. Quite often during Oceans you’ll gently float along a diaphanous post-metal drift, while other passages plunge you to alien depths. The juxtaposition between crystalline expanse and voluminous swells consciously echo the ocean’s natural reverberations, and the transitions are carefully arranged. Unfortunately, the riffs during the heavier sections display a serious lack of variation and imagination, so once you begin to peel back the many layers placed on top, there is a tedious undercurrent beneath that pulls you towards its inky-black void.