Birmingham's Oceans Ate Alaska thrive on dissonance and complexity. They took their name after reading a headline about a tidal wave and specialise in sonic maelstroms of the tech-metal kind.
"It's not the kind of thing you'd hear on Radio One," says guitarist Adam Zytkiewicz, tactfully. "A lot of the time people instantly shut it out, but if you listen over, more layers come out and it doesn't seem quite as baffling."
Adam and guitarist James 'Jibbs' Kennedy use a selection of Ibanez, MusicMan and ESP guitars paired with two trusty EVH 5150s to smash stuttering riffs and tapped leads into drummer Chris Turner's mind-warpingly elaborate rhythmic patterns. The result is the sort of lawlessly progressive racket favoured by the likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan and Born Of Osiris.
Debut album, Lost Isles, was recently released on Fearless Records, but the band initially raised cash to record with metalcore supremo Joshua Wickman at Dreadcore in Whitelake, Michigan, sleeping in the studio to save money.
"[We started in] mid-November and it got absolutely freezing," remembers James. "There weren't any showers either!"
"I was there in minus degrees washing my balls with a flannel," adds Adam. "When you hear the record, you can sense that there was something wrong!"
Perhaps those stuttering riffs aren't so baffling after all…
