Yes, dear reader, this is, in fact, a new Being As An Ocean album. No, we have no idea why either. When last we saw them, they were moonlighting as a modern post-hardcore / Bring Me The Horizon-shaped…thing on PROXY: An A.N.I.M.O Story, a quantum leap away from what they’d built their name on. For some reason, they seemed to lose faith in that right around the time they became best at it. Their earlier work might get all the kudos for displaying hardcore at its most blisteringly emotional and freeform, but their self-titled album in 2015 was the real high, thanks to being a lot leaner and more focused in its execution. But then they left their label and released the masturbatory post-rock slog Waiting For Morning To Come in 2017, at which Being As An Ocean practically disintegrated in real time. To call them a ‘shell of their former selves’ would imply anything even remotely alike was left.
So, naturally for an act trampled under self-inflicted cack-handedness, comes the clean-up the job, though not quite in as severe a form as you might expect. Evidently, Being As An Ocean are still trying to keep their spot on the grand, emotional metalcore train warm. The difference, though, is Death Can Wait is more of a difference-splitter, outwardly rediscovering old cues and stylistic qualities that actually resonated with people, and bringing them back, interwoven, in earnest. Call it a means of saving face and refusing to admit a failed idea if you want, but if it produces better material, it’s a net positive all the same. Compared to the couple of releases that preceded, Death Can Wait certainly has that locked in.
It’s probably the closest in execution and intent to the self-titled album, honestly. The wellspring of emotive discharge from Joel Quartuccio regains its old form of pseudo-spoken word poetry with the tears welling up among it, though spaced out in more standard melodic hardcore fare. All the while, the production is at hand to emphasise an elegance and drama throughout, almost in the vein of mid-period Bring Me The Horizon on a song like Gloom. On the whole, it’s a much cleaner fit for Being As An Ocean, now with a core lineup slimmed down to just Quartuccio and bassist and clean vocalist Michael McGough. The two do get pretty equal footing in terms of standing out (though McGough’s melody game gives him an invaluable knack for a chorus), and an allowance to fall back on what they know without much experimentation is allowable, at least.
At this point, it’s probably worth coming out and saying that, despite an effort that’s cumulatively decent—maybe even good—Death Can Wait is pretty difficult to get excited about. That’s been a problem with Being As An Ocean at the best of times, and smuggling back in initial features that, really, felt oversold at the time doesn’t really help. What’s more, the unkempt rawness that could be appreciated (if nothing else) on Dear G-D… and How We Both Wondrously Perish has been notably slashed and segmented; it’s here in much more fractured quantities. Averaging that out, Being As An Ocean really appear no different from the slew of other acts orbiting Counterparts’ space in the genre. They’re competent with none of the rocket power to elevate that, or none of the rigour that gave them a name in the first place.
It’s just kind of fine, really, standing as an improvement in a vacuum, but in an ever-so-slightly higher position among the swollen midriff of hardcore normality. And that’s all while still sounding generally solid, as a recalibration of Being As An Ocean’s strengths under this current guise. They’re still good at airy, semi-ethereal grandeur as a front for a some gruffness underneath, particularly when Quartuccio slips into a more guttural scream like on Swallowed By The Earth. Some issues in gelling with polish aside (see the underpowered breakdown towards the end of …Gave It A Voice So That My Heart Could Speak), the return to equilibrium is largely a decent one, with the likes of Purest Love or Flesh And Bone standing among the best examples. There’s cinematic sweep that Being As An Ocean can tend to in their sleep, meaning that while the album runs short on terrific highs, you’d be hard pressed to find that many lows either. At least, in purely broad terms.
‘Broad’ is likely what Being As An Ocean want, though. You might notice very little discussion on lyrics—frequently toted as the chamber where this band’s most searing blows are kept—and that’s because it’s one area yet to spin back around from a thoroughly underwhelming set last time. The way Quartuccio tries to sell these songs, you’d think there’d be more here than some basically philosophy and soul-searching, maybe bearing more significance personally but without an outward appearance that holds up even nearly as well. It’s yet one more area where Death Can Wait’s fineness is to its detriment—the mid-level is emphatically not where the emotional peaks are found, no matter how much you try and sell it.
Look, there’s a certain benefit of the doubt that it’s tempting to give to Being As An Ocean. There’s definitely been an effort made to recapture something of note here, and in some individual’s cases, it might work. If you’ve been left disillusioned by their last couple of releases, this is a palate-cleanser you’ll probably be happy to have. But a little more wouldn’t go amiss either, and they are capable of it. It wouldn’t be too awkward of a gearshift to skip the absolute median of emotional hardcore if they wanted to get back to where they were. Hell, that would’ve likely made the resultant comeback all the more potent; they’d just be highlighting how far you’ve escaped from what fell short. This, though, just isn’t that. It is better, but as has been iterated numerous times already, and no doubt will be numerous more, it’s still only fine.
For fans of: Counterparts, Polar, Casey
‘Death Can Wait’ by Being As An Ocean is released on 2nd February on Out Of Line Music.
Words by Luke Nuttall
