Not a single original member left, their shows trademarked with fights, a van accident and having their own press photos banned from MySpace -- all this and Oceano didn't even have a full length record out yet. Well, their baby comes out today on Earache and has been given the name 'Depths.'

Oceano play a blistering mix of death metal and grind-core, but 'Depths' takes their sound in a direction that couldn't have been foreseen. The heavy bass is there, the growls from the grave and guitars that summon baby demons are in full worship but 'Depths' takes a twist and adds harmonies and an open-air production making the heaviest parts unspeakably chilling, almost like something that should be prayed to. Vocalist Adam Warren told Noisecreep, "We obviously didn't think that it could come out sounding that crisp and clean and still hold the heaviness."

Why did you choose to call the album 'Depths', the instrumental track off the record?

Our guitarist gets big credits for coming up with the name. It seemed like a natural fit. Typically the first idea was to call it something based on the ocean or water but it just seemed not metal if we were to do that. But then he came up with that, 'The Depths', like the depths of the ocean. That's not bright, not cheerful, it's not happy, but deep and dark. Only the ugliest creatures live down there and things like that. That seems a lot more fitting. It fits the name and an expression of our debut album. I'm sure people that have heard of us and those that haven't will think ocean, obviously. I think it's a good parallel for the name without straying away from what we are trying to project out from what we are playing.

I was quite surprised how much of an open and clean sound 'Depths' has. It's undeniably heavy and the bass hits like a god that falls from the sky, but still the melodies are so clear. Did you guys plan to have a recording like this?

For the most part the bass, we knew what we wanted it to be heavy like most metal bands, that's what they go into and try and be. Heavy. It's metal. Things like that. We obviously didn't think that it could come out sounding that crisp and clean and still hold the heaviness because there is a lot CDs that have a crappy quality to it but in a good way, you know? So I think we still grasp that grittiness but sounds like good quality. We didn't expect that at all. That is all Joey Sturgis, the producer who recorded us.

Officially now you have no original members, was there ever a debate to change the name?

No. I don't think so. Not really. A lot of it had to do with that we are signed. When it happened we had already recorded. We had all this stuff. At the same time I know me personally whether we got rid of an essentially an original member we have all put in more than our share into Oceano, where as we are just as much Oceano as someone who just happened to be in the band before all of us. We're all doing our parts. I think keeping the name is best. It represents us.

Your lyrics follow a narrative, a very descriptive one at that. Who has influenced you to write like that?

I usually get a lot of questions about how I write and things like that. Influence wise, as far as vocalist, lyricist go hand and hand at times, I've really got into a lot of Behemoth. Their singer's writing style is a lot more deeper and harder to grasp. With me I want people to get what I'm trying to portray at the same time there are underlining things that you might not catch unless I explained it.

That visual. That descriptiveness. A lot of that comes from, as I said, Behemoth, that kind of stuff. When I look at death metal as a whole it's very descriptive in the story.

What themes do you write about on 'Depths'?

'Depths' isn't a concept album, but in a sense it is I think. But as far as song topics it's pretty much scattered stories. On this album we did a lot of typical... what death metal bands cover like evil, entities, and beings like that. The destruction of the earth, all that kind of stuff. At least for me I wanted to do it in a tasteful way and not in an overly gory sense but still be descriptive with the visual. I wanted to keep the spirit of that old school death metal concept but I always throw in my own little ideas and opinions on social issues and things like that. A lot of the songs, maybe 50%, I throw in opinions I have like how we are pretty much destroying our surroundings with pollution.

What is the song 'District of Misery' about?

That song is, like I said, our songs don't hold true to any straight story; they're all different topics. That is the only song that strays the furthest away-politically. It's unlike the other songs. That song is the closest I'll ever get to a political song. I'm not really that big into politics, but it's in the sense, more if you have ever heard of any government conspiracies. It's basically about that, at least in my opinion, how if the government wants something to be executed or they want you to do something they'll see a way to doing it. And a lot of time that is through, as I say district of misery, it's through putting others through misery to influence them to scaring them into doing what they want.

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