ARTIST: The Ocean
TITLE: Phanerozoic: II Mesozoic Cenozoic (Instrumental)
LABEL: Pelagic
GENRE: Instrumental
SOURCE: WEB
BITRATE: 320 kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 51:01
RELEASE DATE: 2020-00-00
RIP DATE: 2020-09-23
ENCODER: LAME
URL: https://pelagic-records.com/
Track List
----------
1. Triassic (Instrumental) 8:32
2. Jurassic - Cretaceous (Instrum 13:25
3. Palaeocene (Instrumental) 4:00
4. Eocene (Instrumental) 3:57
5. Ogligocene (Instrumental) 4:00
6. Miocene - Pliocene (Instrument 4:40
7. Pleistocene (Instrumental) 6:40
8. Holocene (Instrumental) 5:47
Release Notes:
Radiant collapseà Planetary scaleà Our indecent errors paved the way
Truth long known before our last deedsà and the world we know will go down in
flamesàö
Founded by guitarist and composer Robin Staps at the dawn of the millennium, The
Ocean immediately stood apart. Coalescing around a shared vision of limitless
sonic exploration and heaviness delivered straight from the gut, the German
ensemble swiftly gained a formidable reputation as standard bearers for the
nebulous but unstoppable post-metal movement.
Simultaneously revered as one of the most devastating live bands in modern heavy
music, The Ocean became a regular fixture on the European festival circuit,
appearing on metal festival bills of the likes of Hellfest, Wacken, Resurrection
or Summer Breeze as much as on mainstream rock open airs like Roskilde, Dour or
Pukkelpop, and tastemakerÆs indoor boutique festivals like Roadburn or Dunk!
Over the course of their storied career, The Ocean have toured Europe and North
America with influential artists such as Opeth, Mastodon, Mono, Cult Of Luna,
The Dillinger Escape Plan, Anathema, Between The Buried And Me and Devin
Townsend. The bandÆs own Pelagic Records has become one of the worldÆs leading
labels for post-rock and post-metal, with a catalogue of 150 physical releases
since 2009.
Over the last two decades, the band have been in a perpetual state of evolution,
releasing a steady succession of groundbreaking and acclaimed albums that have
all sought to push heavy music forward, embracing the cerebral, the primal and
the inexplicable in equal measure. From the ominous power and thrumming
potential of 2004 debut Fluxion and Metal Blade debut Aeolian, described as
ôcomplex, overwhelming and mercilessly tightö (Kerrang!), through to 2007 double
concept album Precambrian, a ôTeutonic paean to EarthÆs geologyö (Revolver) and
the two-headed atheistÆs manifesto of Heliocentric and Anthropocentric (both
2010), Staps and a perennially fluid cast of musical characters have
methodically built a unique musical legacy.
2013Æs seminal album Pelagial, described as ôA filmic ode to shifting moods,
dichotomous influences and the musical personification of sinking towards the
planetÆs deepest underwater pointsö by Rock Sound, was another milestone for the
band. Their most conceptual work to date, the album was ranked #3 on LoudWireÆs
ôBest Metal Albums Of 2013ö, #5 in About.comÆs ô2013 Best Heavy Metal Albumsö
and recently appeared in LoudWireÆs ôThe Best 66 Metal Albums Of The Decadeö
list.
In the middle of the global pandemic, The Ocean are about to conclude their most
ambitious, overarching and engrossing endeavour to date. In 2018, they released
Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic û the first half of a sprawling but superbly cohesive
palaeontology concept album. The Phanerozoic eon is the current chapter in
EarthÆs history; a chapter which began 541 million years ago, after the end of
the Precambrian. The present tense is the Phanerozoic û we are living in it.
During these 541 million years, the evolution and diversification of plant and
animal life on Earth occurred, and the destruction of it in five mass extinction
events.
Widely hailed as their finest work to date, Phanerozoic I brimmed with moments
of wide-eyed melodic gleam, alongside the expected warping and weaving of
post-metal conventions. It entered the official German album charts at #41,
while also scoring the band their first significant chart positions in the US,
too.
ôStrangely enough, the first part of Phanerozoic really is a æno-regretsÆ
albumö, says vocalist Lo∩c Rossetti. ôMaybe even the first time I can ever say
that. I still think it sounds good, and the material has not become boring
during the 130+ shows weÆve played since the album release. ItÆs pretty well
live-tested now too.ö
In September 2020, The Ocean are poised to release the eagerly-awaited
concluding parts of the Phanerozoic journey. Completing the album took longer
than expected, because of the bandÆs heavy touring schedule since the release of
Phanerozoic I: impressions of these adventures through India, Russia,
Kazakhstan, Armenia, Georgia, Australia, New Zealand and Europe are documented
in the 130-page Phanerozoic photo-book that will be released along with Part II.
In contrast with compositional directness of Phanerozoic I, the new album û
Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic û is a vastly more progressive and perverse
piece of work.
ôPhanerozoic II is more experimental, more eclectic in musical style and
direction, and more varied in terms of tempos, beats, guitar work and the use of
electronics,ö notes Staps. ôThis was an intentional choice: we wanted Part I to
feel rather streamlined and to have a strong cohesion between the individual
songs. We wanted to create a certain vibe to linger from the first until the
last note throughout the whole record. We kept the weirder, more daring and more
progressive material for Part II. The outcome is a record that is a real
journey. It starts in one place, and concludes in a totally different place. In
a way, it relates to Pelagial, which was similar in that it was also a journey:
but a more guided, focused and predictable one. Phanerozoic II on the other hand
is closer to the experience of free fall.ö
Divided into two sections û Mesozoic and Cenozoic û Phanerozoic II once again
showcases the detail and depth that have become two of The OceanÆs most enduring
trademarks. While ostensibly delving into the extraordinary realities of the
EarthÆs shifting temporal tides, Staps and his comrades have long drawn hazy
parallels between their chosen subjects and the emotional experiences that their
music strives to convey. Phanerozoic II is essentially an album about time, with
some very poignant and pointed allusions to the modern world woven into the new
musicÆs spiritual fabric.
At the end of the Mesozoic era, an asteroid hit the Yucatßn peninsula in what is
nowadays Mexico and wiped out not only the dinosaurs, but most life on earth.
The impact triggered forest fires of unfathomable dimensions, and the dust from
the impact and the smoke from the fires clouded the sun for months.
Photosynthesis eventually came to a halt on a global level, the oxygen level in
the atmosphere plummeted, temperatures dropped. This historic apocalypse is the
essence of the track Jurassic | Cretaceous, which The Ocean take to the human
level by references to maverick movie director Lars Von TrierÆs masterpiece
Melancholia and the various philosophical questions touched upon in that film.
The current climate change debate, which was alluded to in Permian: The Great
Dying on Phanerozoic I, recurs in the chorus hook-line of Cretaceous: æWe are
just like reptiles, giant rulers of the world. Within the blink of an eye wiped
off the face of the EarthÆ.ö
ôThough humanity is only a very recent phenomenon in the 541 million years
history of the Phanerozoic eon, the lyrics are obviously written from a human
perspective,ö Staps explains. ôThey are following NietzscheÆs philosophical idea
of amor fati in the light of the larger themes of Eternal Recurrence, and the
inevitability of an imaginary impending collision on a planetary scale, which
are the two red threads that go through Phanerozoic I and II.ö
A profound cautionary tale, Phanerozoic II is underpinned by some of the most
imaginative and challenging music that The Ocean û completed by drummer Paul
Seidel, keyboard maestro Peter Voigtmann, bassist Mattias HΣgerstrand and
guitarist David Ramis Ahfeldt û have made yet. Tracked in Iceland, Spain and
Germany and produced by esteemed studio guru Jens Bogren, the album is once
again blessed with the presence of Jonas Renkse, whose peerless vocals find
another sublime backdrop during the second half of mammoth epic Jurassic /
Cretaceous.
Also making a return appearance on the new record is Tomas Liljedahl, best known
as vocalist with iconic Swedish post-metal/sludge crew Breach. With cameos on
Aeolian, Precambrian and Pelagial, Liljedahl has already proved his kinship and
chemistry with The Ocean, and Staps is thrilled to have had his involvement in
the bandÆs latest masterwork.
ôBreach were one of the most important bands for me, not only with their
milestone album Kollapse, which was basically the invention of what people refer
to as post-metal nowadays long before this term was ever coined, but also æItÆs
Me GodÆ (1997) and æVenomÆ (1999) û they changed my view on music and guitar
playing entirely. Breach were different from everything and everyone else around
at that time and itÆs an honour to have Tomas continue the tradition to guest on
our albums for the fourth time now.ö
The Ocean have long been known for their extensive, awe-inspiring album
packaging, and their 10th album is no let-down: the Phanerozoic wooden box set
included an engraved slate rock plate next to vinyl records and/or CDs of both
albums, and even authentic pre-historic fossils: a trilobite from the
Palaeozoic, an ammonite from the Mesozoic and a petrified fish skeleton from the
Cenozoic era. The band sourced these fossils over the period of several months
with the help of a geological institute in Munich, and getting the quantities
needed to fulfil 1,000 box set preorders was a great challenge: hundreds of
Moroccan trilobites, 450 million (!) years of age, had to be sourced from global
trade fairs.
Released into a world in turmoil, Phanerozoic II will provide fans of
adventurous and challenging music with all the sonic and philosophical
sustenance they have come to expect from this most intuitively progressive
German / Swiss / Swedish musicians collective. Despite the current pausing of
all live performances, The Ocean will be twitching in the starting blocks when
the madness of the global pandemic has passed; primed and ready to take their
new music out on the road, where it will doubtless mutate and grow into ever
more extraordinary shapes. The band have always been professional escape artists
from the modern world, playing in a many far-flung locations as possible, and
Staps insists that The Ocean will roll on for the foreseeable future, as mighty
and inexorable as time itself.
ôWeÆre always striving to get out as much as we can,ö Staps concludes. ôAnd as
far away as we can, to bring our music and our lives to the last frontiers which
remain in a world where the last square inches of free spaces have been
Google-mapped to a frightening high resolution and level of detail.ö