It's been very interesting watching the growth of instrumental music over the past few years. Many of these bands, especially in the Metal world, are experimental in nature. They write songs where the musical dynamics and emotion do the talking instead of a lead singer. OCOAI is a younger band in this movement, but this seven-song album proves to be quite an experience.

"Waking Fear" s four minutes long, and it acts as an interesting intro. The song starts with clean guitar, and a cello and piano soon join in. But the serenity of the song is interrupted by the sound of an approaching train. At the two-and-a-half minute mark, the train sounds crescendo into a complete cacophony. The song is a crushing, mechanized nightmare for almost a full minute then ends with an open guitar chord.

Next up is "Niveus Hills", and this track is a full-on ode to BARONESS. Clean acoustic guitars bring us in. We hear the first riff of the album at 1:15, and the locked-in guitar and upbeat drumming bring the best of today's catchy southern sludge to mind. Whoa, is that a cello solo? Nice. Though it slows towards the end, the song still has plenty of energy.

"Grimpeur" is an ambitious 13-minute track, and this song is firmly rooted in the PINK FLOYD soundscape. More lovely cello work; then a long passage of clean guitar soloing is the song's centrepiece. Of course the band throws in a few riffs for good measure. "Somnium" is a short track with sitar, strings and some keyboard noise.

"La Main dElecrtrique" brings the album back to a full gallop with a stomping riff. Duelling guitar leads and a heavy bottom end provide an initial surge, and the added flavour of a keyboard solo gives the track some texture. It slows at around the 4-minute mark and gets downright doomy. Then the slide guitar comes in ... wait, what? Don't worry, it all works. "Marchand de Sommeil" is another long track, and this starts with some keyboard and echoing guitar. The slide guitar comes back in with keyboard backing ... does the term boogie blues doom core make any sense? Well, that's pretty much what I'm hearing. There's a quiet pause halfway through the song, and then it slowly builds to more guitar soloing and a thick-riff ending. "Morte Audaciter" is a soft ending for this experimental album. It is five minutes of piano with a slight amount of guitar atmospherics.

I went from never having heard of this band to loving them in about an hour. This album has so many interesting twists and turns that I look forward to watching the band grow and mature over the next few years.