Everyone Into Position, Oceansize's second full-length, is frustrating. The band stitches together a patchwork of styles-- alternative rock, riff-heavy modern hardcore, ethereal post rock, scream-filled metal-- that don't really blend but instead just seem to sidle up beside one another, varying extensively from track to track. There are powerful moments throughout, from intense bouts of noise and vocal wails, to quiet, serene ambience, but tying it all together somehow makes it seem watered down and banal.
The album begins on a dark note with the tribal-esque drumming and mystical guitar of "The Charm Offensive". Unfortunately, the vocals are straight out of 90s alternative rock, which is fitting as the song moves through a ponderous grunge groove that the swirling guitars can't quite rescue. "Heaven Alive" continues the trend of by-the-numbers rock, with the wah-wah pedal dominating the guitar lines. In fact, the band doesn't really let on that there's more than meets the eye until the first few aggressive seconds of "A Homage to Shame". Atonal hardcore blasts segue into a relatively bland verse, but there are more layers working here: Heavy power chords, light, ethereal leads, keyboards, and billowing vocals breathe life into the formula, and by the end, everything has exploded into a chaotic mix of wailing guitars and buried vocal screeches.
Thankfully, the band breaks through the tedium on both the beautiful "Music for a Nurse"-- which could be mistaken for Explosions in the Sky's newer material if not for the soft vocals buried throughout the track-- and "Mine Host", which is built almost entirely on quiet ambience. The drums sound like they're being piped in from some other world, and vocal repetitions are hypnotic.
My frustration, however, stems from how muddled up everything seems. There are tracks that are solid from start to finish, and others that beg to be skipped. Clearly, the band consists of some talented musicians; if only they could focus on the more original aspects of their music. Perfect examples are the album's two final tracks, "You Can't Keep a Bad Man Down" and "Ornament/The Last Wrongs". These two lengthy, dense tracks build their melodies with layers of instruments, and manage to meld styles into something coherent and powerful.
