The album cover talked to us first. Poseidon, are you calling again? Late in 2024, we had you on a banger of a record. Full trident power on stark display. So, here the Olympian Gawd ov The Sea (and other mischief) reemerges from the North Sea. Or something.
Terra Atlantica are on the prowl again. To our chagrin, steampunk seems to be out the door, and Oceans are their theme with a penchant for pirate lore. A fact we kinda guessed when looking at the cover.
But with moving things into the Pirate Metal realm comes big responsibility. Legion are the questionable funnybones trying to convince the audience that booze is the new event horizon and the life of a sea-borne marauder was just dandy back in time. And some acts out there sure have worn out their welcome with this here crew. So, sure enough, the moment Oceans lets loose, you feel the grubby lil’ hands of Alestorm all over your eardrums.1 Good that Terra Atlantica didn’t fake a Scottish accent for added spice. That would have been a real disaster.
But besides all that, the band boasts a mighty roar and serves an abundance of speedy Power Metal with some remarkable gusto. However, it also sports a brand that doesn’t quite know on which side of symphonic power to land. Said differently, the piece is slathered in enough cheese ‘n’ sugar to please the acolytes of Fellowship, but without the latter’s undeniable knack for flowery songsmithing. Yet, on the other hand, the band tries to hit the shores with mighty cannonballs and drawn sabers with a loud series of tracks stemming straight from good ol’ Power Metal Central.
And that saddles Oceans with a mix of ditties we somehow heard somewhere before. This – thing kinda sounds like one of them Caribbean drinks with way too much rum and enough sugar to induce a high. Elements from Helloween, Alestorm, Avantasia, Visions of Atlantis, and many more famous names jockey for space on this record. In other words, Terra Atlantica here took the best cuts of existing bands’ albums, got them into a blender, and concocted their own version. On top of all that, Oceans contains an overabundance of filler material that left us scratching our heads over here.
For example, Hoist the Sail endlessly uses leads from Alestorm’s realm ad nauseam. And it also blatantly overuses famous hornpipe themes from the Scottish Highlands. Or move to the 10-minute monster Oceans of Eternity. On that track, Terra Atlantica abuse Händel’s divinely baroque Sarabande to no end and mix this with some version of sorts of Mozart’s 40th Symphony.2 On the upside, Caribbean Shores is the only track where the stealin’ doesn’t really gripe. But the bloat on offer here doesn’t leave an awful lot of room for Terra Atlantica‘s own original content, unfortunately.
Let’s use the video for Hoist The Sail attached below as a metaphor to take this further. This clip is cringe writ large. Whenever I fire it up, I wanna jump overboard into Travemünde harbor and swim for safety. First, the cinematography is spotty to say the least. It feels like a poorly managed green room shot with a disastrous choreography. Then the pirate part of it falls flat once you realize that the shoot was done on one of those steel sailships available in abundance around Kiel and Lübeck. They were all built about the early 1900s to beat them vile steam vessels.3 So, hot damn, band, at least have the goodness to project a wooden frigate for your pirate woes and play the part correctly. The maritime mystique is better served when employing old, romantic charm. This lack of attention to detail is symptomatic of the entire record, by the way.
So, where does all this lead us with Oceans? The record sounds very similar to the sins The 7th Guild committed lately.4 Same as the latter, Terra Atlantica took any and all suitable elements from the vast Power Metal universe and created their own version. And that almost always ends in yet another dime-a-dozen record in an already overloaded genre. So, the only reason preventing the band from landing a solid 1/10 rating is that they know how to play rock-solid, speed-laden Power Metal. Metal with a mean streak and a full-throated croak to boot. There’s enough talent in this outfit to take this further. But for this to happen, they would need to switch gears and kick it up a few notches. But, alas, they chose not to do that this time.
Record Rating: 4/10 | Label: Scarlet Records | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 26 September 2025