Oceansize Everyone: Into Position

Herald rating: * * * *

It's odd to have an album that will appeal as much to those into the feelers, Coldplay or Audioslave, as it will to those into more obscure heavy bands such as Mars Volta and Isis.

That's Oceansize - shimmering guitar ambience, catchy hooks and serenading vocals - plus a bit of Tool-like menace.

The opening track, The Charm Offensive, and the album highlight A Homage To A Shame, have jagged riffs and violently heavy moments that give way to some grandiose, and often long and simmering, sound trips.

Oceansize have an openness to them that's all about a band discovering where you can take a song rather than working it out beforehand.

But this is no improvised jam.

Heaven Alive, for example, is as appealing as a Top 10 feelers track, with the difference that Everyone Into Position is an ambitious and turbulent album.

The five-piece come across as unashamedly self-indulgent - and that's no surprise, with three guitars.

But tracks such as Meredith and Music For A Nurse are so easy on the ear that, similar to Napier's Jakob, Oceansize prove quite easily that they're certainly not just posers.Label: Beggars Banquet