I present to you, Ascariasis, the future Gods of Metal. Hailing from Burlington, Ontario, this progressive deathcore… this technical death metal… this band is destined to do big things. Their debut EP, Ocean of Colour, is basically 25 minutes of pure heaven for anyone who enjoys deathcore or death metal (or both). The opening track, Shatter, slowly fades in and you’re bound to be in love when you can clearly hear the fantastic guitar leads. Shortly after the intro, you’re teased with some very bouncy, djent-styled riffing. Then, the vocals come in. Vocalist, Evan Watton, is the perfect front-man for this style of music. It’s absolutely amazing how a band can incorporate such melodic and technical guitar leads with such “brutal” vocals and a very aggressive drumming style so flawlessly. Next up is Torchbearer. When the song starts, it sounds exactly like something that Veil of Maya would write, but Ascariasis quickly adds their own style, eliminating the possibility of sounding like a carbon copy. Torchbearer has some really good guitar leads and riffs and an extremely aggressive breakdown to end the song. During the breakdown, you get to hear a little bass solo by Devin. Despite being another very impressive song, I think this is the weakest on the EP. After the heavy ending in Torchbearer, the third track, Eleven, starts off antithetically with a very soothing piano intro. By this point in the EP, I was already in love. It seems as if this band has everything except clean vocals. Like the rest of Ocean of Colour, there are plenty of things going on in this song. There is one prominent guitar lead that can be heard throughout the course of Eleven, an instrumental interlude (which serves as a nice break from all the action), followed by another very aggressive breakdown. The fourth track is the title track, Ocean of Colour. This is my personal favourite. The groovy part with fantastic leads about a minute into the song is one of the catchiest bits I have heard in quite a long time. There is another mini interlude in this song, and as soon as it ends, you’re hit with a bone-crushing breakdown. Then, we go full circle back to the groove and spellbinding guitar leads. At the end of the fourth track, Evan showcases his lows, and let me tell you one thing; they are very low! Last but not least, Carving the World. Due to the musicianship on this track, this title makes perfect sense, as it will most likely carve the world of metal a new rear end. Remember what I said about this band having everything except clean vocals? Well, they added some in the final song and they fit perfectly! You can also expect to hear a cool symphonic bit, some masterful drumming, and a spectacular guitar solo as the EP comes to an end. Although Ascariasis has an extremely unique sound, I can most certainly hear the influences of progressive big guns like Born of Osiris, Fallujah, Veil of Maya, and Animals As Leaders. In my opinion, Ascariasis is like all of the aforementioned bands at times, but they add more than enough variety to each song to give you some kind of distinction between other bands and to ensure they’re not written off as some other wannabe, “copycat” band.
Considering the obvious talent that they possess, the beautiful music that they give away for free, and that they are from Burlington – which is just over an hour away from yours truly – I would really like to know how I had never heard of Ascariasis before last night.
It’s much too early to say now, but I am pretty sure that Ocean of Colour will soon become one of my favourite progressive deathcore/technical death metal releases. My current favourites are The Discovery by Born of Osiris, Exoplanet by The Contortionist, and Deflorate by The Black Dahlia Murder, and if you put that into perspective, that alone should entice you to check this band out! 
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