ALBUM REVIEW: PROXY: An A.N.I.M.O Story – Being As An Ocean

If you were to compare BEING AS AN OCEAN now to what they first emerged sounding like and you would be forgiven for thinking them two entirely different bands. On their emotive debut Dear G-D the band established themselves as the poster boys of melodic hardcore, before capitalising on all of this with their near masterful sophomore How Wondrously We Both Perish. Hammering home a mixture of spoken word, emotionally charged lyrics, and impassioned vocal delivery with intricate melodies and hardcore sensibilities, BEING AS AN OCEAN were able to shoot themselves into the stratosphere before they began experimenting with sounds. It was a sound that was delicate yet crushing, and it was great.

Starting first with a shift towards more traditional song writing on their self-titled opus, the group quickly re-wrote a lot of their hardcore DNA to be replaced with a bigger focus on post-rock and electronic sounds. This was definitely a harder sell for BEING AS AN OCEAN, and it felt like their previous work, Waiting for Morning to Come, was comfortably the band’s weakest outing. There is an argument to be had that being the band’s first soiree into genuine pop-rock real estate, there would always be teething issues. Except, even now that the band have realised their creatively incredible PROXY: An A.N.I.M.O Story album, musically, there is a lot left wanting in this BEING AS AN OCEAN sound.

Immediately, and thankfully, noticeable is the fact that this time round the mix and compositions benefit from some proper chunky guitars. Play Pretend boasts a real BRING ME THE HORIZON inspired opening riff that helps kick the album off with a decent bang, and it also serves as a great look into how the band are now able to balance the two sides of their sound in a much better way. The title track is also a pounding, electronic powerhouse of a song that has peaks a plenty and feels like an exciting way to round off the album as a whole.

With these two songs showing a better match of sounds, there also remains a littering of songs that just don’t hit the lofty heights BEING AS AN OCEAN has reached before. B.O.Y is a weird and bassy tune that feels entirely robbed from TWENTY ONE PILOTS and Brave is an early album ballad that doesn’t feel nearly as impactful as it should do, coming equipped with some summery electronic motifs that are just a bit too sugary. The journey towards their pop-rock sounds seems to have come at the sacrifice of a lot of the emotional honesty. Whilst frontman Joel Quartuccio still displays a fine ability to lead the band, trading in his shouts for singing is a noticeable detriment with regards to the emotion felt throughout the album. There is a general lack of vocal diversity on PROXY, and whilst the clean singing tones work with the music, it feels too safe, and it feels sterile in places.

If you didn’t know PROXY was a concept album, you would be let off for not realising. And this lack of clear connection between the story the band are trying to tell and the album we got is a real miss for a group clearly trying to test themselves in new and inspiring ways. The artistic direction on PROXY feels like the direction BEING AS AN OCEAN should have always gone, but that doesn’t stop the album, and concept as a whole, feeling a few eggs short of a dozen.

Having tried to follow in the footsteps of bands like BRING ME THE HORIZON, BEING AS AN OCEAN have made a genuinely, better stab at writing a creatively interesting pop-rock record than previous, but even now the band just don’t have the same vitality as they did when they first arrived on the scene. PROXY is a creative step in the direction BEING AS AN OCEAN should’ve always been going down, and whilst featuring some clear wins, it is bogged down by some musical experiments that just haven’t materialised well. BEING AS AN OCEAN possess an astonishing creative spirit, but they seem to be missing the certain spice that made them so special to begin with.

Rating: 6/10

PROXY: An A.N.I.M.O. Story is out now via self-release.

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