Via Vengeance
Dieography
Street: 2007
Via Vengeance = Neurosis + Clutch + [(Phil Collins + guitar) - pop sap]

There ain't many one-man bands that don't involve a mariachi guitar or carnival gloss, but Shane Ocell bucks tradition by combining low, heavy-ass guitar, drum and voice into a pleasing musical conglomerate that is actually dead serious. Shane opted for the one-man band approach for the independence factor. I met Shane when he was a merch guy for the Red Sparowes up in Portland about a year ago and he is one o' the nicest chaps you ever done met. Dieography, recorded by Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Isis) is his second recording (I think the first one wasn't official), and it's easy to see the progress. The production is beefier and thick enough to clog arteries; do not mix with McDonald's. The chromatic-scaled Black Sabbath-y riffs are simple, stripped down and covered in barbed wire. My one gripe would be to add more drum variation, but I think that would require expanding into a two-piece, and hell. Where's the charm in that? –Rebecca Vernon, SLUG Magazine, June 2008