THE OCEAN (DE)

Atmospheric sludge/post-hardcore/progressive metal | Established 2001 | DE | Web | Facebook

THE OCEAN are one of the most striking acts of today, if only given the style they play, which in itself is so widely constituted that subsuming it under a single stylistic category is simply impossible. THE OCEAN fuse atmospheric sludge, post-hardcore and progressive metal, which entails a colorful sound mosaic indeed. The band has been hollowing such musical vision pretty much right from their inception in 2001, manifesting it so far on nine full-lengths, and presenting it on shows all over the globe, including its most remote corners. These certainly fostered the reputation of THE OCEAN, as they are always intense performances that open one’s mind towards higher wisdom, which brings us back to their music. The most recent album of this act is “Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic / Cenozoic”, the second chapter of the musical manifestation of the youngest geological eon of Earth, which picks up exactly where its predecessor left off, going through the Age of Reptiles and the current Age of Mammals. In a more general sense, “Phanerozoic II” concludes the impressive paleontological journey THE OCEAN began with their “Precambrian” full-length. Music-wise, the latest offering is more experimental and varied than “Phanerozoic I”, its themes however carry on. The central motif is again the concept of the “eternal return” that was elaborate upon probably the most by Friedrich Nietzsche, and which in short states that in the endless spatiotemporal continuum, everything is perpetually repeated over and over again. And as the leader and main composer of THE OCEAN, Robin Staps, explains, there is countless evidence for this thesis in the history of our planet, the most profound being the repeated near extinctions and subsequent restorations of life on Earth. Staps’s talk about the album’s subject matter, as well as about why we are on the threshold of the next extinction event is certainly a noteworthy read, so if interested, check out more. In conclusion it is apt to note that since “Phanerozoic” now stands in its entirety, what awaits us on MGCDF 2022 is a grandiose journey into the depths of time.