In September 2002 suddenly there was the surprising album Effloresce by Oceansize, a five-piece from Manchester that, with a combination of nu metal, industrial and emorock, effortlessly connected with American examples such as Tool and Incubus. During the subsequent worldwide tour they also revealed themselves as a relentless live act, with the charismatic singer and guitarist Mike Vennart as the
… eye-catcher. Exactly two years later the second album Everyone Into Position is released. From the first track, The Charm Offensive, which ends in a fat hard rock riff, the band is in good shape but halfway through the record the band seems to want to broaden its depth and the tempo is drastically reduced for a number of atmospheric parts. It does not really want to be exciting and the thinness of Vennart's voice is suddenly noticeable. They better do what they are good at and mask their compositional limitations with a lot of noise. (MR)more
