Contagion

Heaviest album of all time

Thankss

Good stuff

Nice Riffs. If you liked previous items from this artist you will not be disappointed. Not too shabby..not mind blowing, but def. worth a listen or 2,3 20 times.

This music CD is very VERY good for those people that love to head bang and for musicians (I play drums to it). This CD is very good and has plenty of tracks and this CD is better then death metal like Dethklok and other deathmetal producers. I gladly bought this product!

Sick

This year has been a great year for comeback releases. Bands such as Bring Me The Horizon, For Today, and even Chiodos have created memorable albums to remodel or even save their reputations. All three of these bands were completely unexciting to me until they released a powerful comeback album, and with Contagion, Oceano has joined that list.Let it be known that with Depths, the band's first release, Oceano failed to impress me save for the single track "District Of Misery". Plagued with an unstable lineup and dealing with public pressure due to a controversial photo shoot depicting the band "killing and disfiguring" female models, they've had a rough time since 2006. However, these Chicago natives have somehow pieced together a solid enough lineup to be able to record a much more skillfully composed follow-up to a much less than exceptional debut.Contagion is a massive album from the get-go. It flaunts the same type of dark, sadistic atmosphere found in Whitechapel's A New Era Of Corruption, without detracting from the overall heaviness of the CD. Tracks like "Precursor To Enslavement", "Quarantine", "Persuasive Opression" and "The Contaminated" are perfect examples of this. They are slow, sludgy, driving, and positively delicious to the fans of more death metal-y (death metallic? Who cares.) influences.Oceano did an excellent job balancing the slower riffing described above with faster and groovier tracks such as "Weaponized", "Viral Re-Animation", and "Remnants Aflame". Still, this is definitely Oceano's musical strength, as they are able to better incorporate that twisted and grim atmosphere into their songwriting. If that wasn't enough, vocalist Adam Warren's screams and growls gain that "it" factor in every single one of the quicker songs. The closing track, "Ending Intellect" (one of the best on the album) is exemplary of this. With diverse and oh-so-heavy guitars, I was really impressed with some of the riffing on "Regulated Disposal Of Life" as well as "Sadistic Experiments" and "Remnants Aflame".Contagion suffers from only one noteworthy shortcoming. Most prevalently noticed is the redundancy carried by most of the slower tracks. Things sound too similar after a while, and it detracts from the overall experience. Nevertheless, the excellent songwriting demonstrated in the faster, more melodic songs coupled with all-around excellent production--courtesy of Planet Z Studios (The Acacia Strain)--make up for this flaw. Oceano has turned it all around and constructed forty-minutes of unabridged pissed-off decimation that's as unstoppable as a hurricane and hits like the hammer of Thor.

Oceano traffic in all of the usual death metal/deathcore trademarks on their second album, 2010's "Contagion." Vocals that usually alternate between intelligible hardcore screams and blood-curdling death metal growls, and are occasionally punctuated by brutal (and sometimes extensively-used), grindcore-worthy pig squeals? Check. And what about great drumming? Yes, that is firmly in tact, here, as well. And bludgeoning riffs? Yep. And you can bet your bottom dollar, too, on the fact that these eleven tracks filter in more than a handful of brutal hardcore breakdowns, steady (if rarely audible), crunching bass lines, and circle-pit-ready choruses, as well.Another cliché that "Contagion" has is that it fairly prototypically features songs that can barely be distinguished from one another. But even if the song remains mostly the same from beginning to end, upon close inspection, one will realize that there are some definite standouts to be had, here. Track two, "Viral Re-Affirmation" (which features two members of Despised Icon), is a blistering inclusion that relies almost solely on blazing thrash riffs, booming rhythms, vocals that verge on the Dying Fetus-esque, goregrind-worthy pig squeal style, and tight and brutal drumming (including blast beats, double bass rolls, and propulsive thrash beats). And only occasionally does the song give the listener a breather by adopting a mid-tempo, chugging breakdown. "Quarantine," with its sludgy riffs and blistering blast beats, is another possible highpoint. But "Persuasive Oppression," not only features Nick Arthur of Molotov Solution, it also has a few crunchy, headbangable riffs (in its intro)before a fast tempo change kicks in, rocketing the song into frantic, frenzied grindcore territory, is another (and the song is also further-highlighted by a decently ripping, harmonic guitar solo); and "Ending Intellect," which bristles with some truly insane drumming (including mind-boggling, Meshuggah-worthy polyrhythms), is another.Other notable mentions include the breakdown-happy rhythms and machine-gun fast drumming of "Regulated Disposal Of Life"; the fiery, thrashy, chainsaw riffing behind "The Contaminated"; and "Sadistic Experiments," a very Fear Factory-esque number which finds thunderous blast beats interlocking with machine gun-fast guitar leads to produce hooky, moving, staccato rhythms. And, of course, one must not forget to mention the record's sole anomaly: The completely instrumental "Exist In Confinement" begins with an ominously mid-tempo and forebodingly quiet intro complete with acoustic guitar, standout-worthy melodic leads, and non-threatening, martial-sounding drum fills.So, again, I would probably rather die than say that "Contagion" breaks much, if any, new ground in either the deathcore/grind/metalcore genres, nor can it be considered a landmark release in the extreme metal genre, as a whole. But even so, as far as being an enjoyable, mosh-pit-ready, and overall fairly darn satisfying listen, this album is more than successful at getting the job done. As such, it is a recommended check-out for most extreme metallists (especially deathcore fans that favor the latter subset of the genre's two styles more than the former one), even if it cannot exactly be said to be great or timeless enough to be deemed a mandatory purchase.