Seven Nautical Miles – Every Ocean Reversed

September 22, 2008 • Sound Devastation Records

I listen to more sludge metal than is probably healthy, especially the Isis school of atmospheric, post-rockish stuff. However, I can be a bit too picky about which albums I enjoy, and it's all too easy to shuttle more obscure albums like Every Ocean Reversed into the long list of releases I heard once or twice and then ignored. But Seven Nautical Miles was actually quite a pleasant surprise, even if it still doesn't touch my favorites in the genre.

Sonically, this album is very similar to Cult of Luna (basically my favorite band of all time), mixing soft clean sections with pounding, heavy, doomy riffs and tortured vocals to create grandiose compositions. It's a tried-and-true formula, and though most bands have a hard time pulling it off Seven Nautical Miles doesn't. It's probably because a lot of their heavier bits are actually very simple, and when it comes to making this type of music sound heavy, simple is usually better. Simplicity, combined with repetition: it's part of what made Cult of Luna and mid-era Isis so captivating, and it's what works here.

Of couse I'd be lying if I didn't say that this album is sadly a bit formulaic. The quiet-buildup-loud-quiet-buildup-loud structure dominates most of the songs, a structure which any post-rock fan is decidedly sick of by now. The band doesn't go to any lengths to add any unique elements to their sound, relying entirely on the songwriting to carry their very standard instrumentation. Simplicity can be a good thing but it doesn't always get you as far as you need to go. I'm always happy to revisit Callisto's True Nature Unfolds for the saxophone, or Cult of Luna's self-titled album for the cello, but haven't found much reason to come back to Every Ocean Reversed very often. The songs are all very similar and it's hard to pick out particular segments I like, though as a whole the sound is pretty strong.

So regardless of its shortcomings, I still think it's a good album, even if I only think so for biased personal reasons—I'd love to hear another thousand Cult of Luna albums, so a soundalike or two are sometimes enough to satisfy me—but I don't know if I'd recommend it to someone who wasn't as much into sludge metal as I am. It's already kind of a niche genre, so most people aren't going to get a lot out of Every Ocean Reversed, but I'm enjoying it regardless.

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