Our Oceans: ex-Cynic, Dodecahedron and Exivious Members Team Up for New Band

The future of Cynic may be uncertain, but no matter what happens you’ve got to tip your cap to the incredible roster of musicians that’ve passed through the band’s ranks over the years.

Two of those musicians, guitarist Tymon Kruidenier and bassist Robin Zielhorst — who played together in Cynic for a spell between 2009 and 2011 — have made two albums as Exivious, a jazz fusion-y outfit that for a time also featured Textures drummer Stef Broks. And now they’ve teamed up again for a new project, Our Oceans, with guitarist Michel Nienhuis (also in Exivious) and drummer Jasper Barendregt, both of whom play together in titanic death metal outfit Dodecahedron.

Our Oceans don’t sound like Exivious, and they sound NOTHING like Dodecahedron; the closest touchstone is probably Cynic, although even that’d be a stretch if not for the fretless bass. “What If,” the first song they’ve released, is a super-chill number with soothing vocals, sparkling clean guitar atmospherics and a rock song backbone with a dash of progginess. It reminds me a bit of Textures’ more pensive numbers, or even something like a Filter ballad. It’s really good! And it’s refreshing in that it sounds nothing like what you’d expect given the band’s membership. I can’t wait to hear a full album of it.

Our Oceans’ self-titled debut comes out on November 15th. Order here.