Review: The Ocean Collective - Heliocentric
The Ocean Collective (henceforth known as 'The Ocean') are what can best be described as an experimental metal formation, hailing from Berlin. Their style has in the past incorporated;
- Drone metal
- Doom metal
- Post metal
- Sludge metal
- Prog metal
- Classical
- Electronic
And numerous other genres.
Founded on the turn of the new millennium, The Ocean have have a somewhat tumultuous journey, getting through reams of people until an almost stable foundation was formed. Being ones for diversity, there is a constant influx of guest talent throughout albums, with the main base currently consisting of;
- Loïc Rossetti: vocals
- Jona Nido: guitar
- Robin Staps: guitar
- Louis Jucker: bass
- Luc Hess: drums
- Nils Lindenhayn: visuals
With previous releases taking the metal underground by storm, including the past double album Fluxion/Aeolian, with the latter having a more 'metal feel'.
Following the 2005 release of Aeolian, the band jumped back into the studio to create a masterpiece, Precambrian - a dual disc split, centring around the creation of the Earth, with Disc 1 being a raw-er feel and Disc 2 going back to post-metal feel of Fluxion. (*Non studio work has been omitted*)
Jump forward to the present year, and on the 9th of April 2010 another double album has been started, with the first part being dubbed as Heliocentric, the second part following on later in the year, 'Anthropocentric'.
This double album will be centred around the critique of Christianity from various personal and philosophical tangents. Which in itself is no mean feat, having two albums centred around a singular topic of contention...
Now, as the title suggests, it is covering the period of heliocentric views through to Darwin's theory of evolution, whereas Anthropocentric will cover 'modern' creationist views.
So to cut to the chase, the packaging;
That's enough packaging, it's time to move onto the much more interesting stuff:
http://i325.photobucket.com/albums/k...h_IMG_9163.jpg
The track listing is as follows:
- Shamayim - 1:53
- Firmament - 7:29
- The First Commandment of the Luminaries - 6:47
- Ptolemy Was Wrong - 6:28
- Metaphysics of the Hangman - 5:41
- Catharsis of a Heretic - 2:08
- Swallowed by the Earth - 4.59
- Epiphany - 3:37
- The Origin of Species - 7:23
- The Origin of God - 4:33
Totalling a length of 50:58
Album lineup:
The Ocean
- Luc Hess - Drums
- Louis Jucker - Bass
- Loic Rossetti - Vocals
- Jonathan Nido - Guitars
- Robin Straps - Guitars, Electronics
Guests:
- Esther Monnat - Cello
- Céline Portat - Viola
- Estelle Beiner - Violin
- Lionel Gafner - Contrabass
- Vincent Membrez - Piano
- Jérôme Correa - Saxophone
- Robert Gutowski - Trombone
- Hans Albert Staps - Trumpet
- James Yates - Vibraphone
- René Noçon - Vocals on "Ptolemy Was Wrong"
- Meta - Additional vocals on "Swallowed by the Earth"
When first setting the album running you're greeted with a short instrumental run in (which is vaguely drone metal at first and then smoothly changes to flow into "Firmament").
This is the first introduction to who the album sounds overall (however the initial part of he track is somewhat reminiscent of Mastodon's Crack the Skye), being quite a mixed track it covers most of the artistic ground that is explored later on in the album. The basis seems to revolve nicely around some top notch drum work with some flowing guitar melodies to tie things together. It is by no means vastly diverse, just dabbling here-and-there.
Moving onto "The First Commandment of the Luminaries" you're met with a much faster flowing start, which immediately peters out to clean vocals and what appears to be a backing of some handy violins (keeping in touch with their vast range of genres), this then follows on to quite a 'proggy' section quite reminiscent of Sound Garden it it's overall feel (although a little faster). Rinse and repeat until the end of the song, with some creative lyrics and a piano breakdown thrown in for good measure.
"Ptolemy Was Wrong" starts sounding very mellow indeed with pure vocals and a piano backing, again in keeping with having a mix, although so far the mellow doesn't seem to have been offset with many large heavy sections as usual (perhaps that will follow in the second part of the album), the song then kicks in with a few additional instruments, but maintains it's slow pace throughout.
However that is not to say that the song is bad, it is a pleasant mix, not up to the usual mixed standards that was set by Precambrian but a very high bar was set with that album.
The whole conceptualization in this song is delivered via orchestration and instrumentation with no hint of metal to be seen.
Moving on to "Metaphysics of the Hangman" we are faced with a slightly more metal intro, which again, quickly dissipates into clean singing and soft instrumentation, there are sporadic spurts of metal goodness, but nothing major, it seems to be more of a tantalising moment of a few growls and faster pace, still the basic groundwork of a good rhythm for the drum track and bass as-well as the guitars keeping things in line, mean that the lack of heaviness isn't too bothersome as it isn't the usual stale nonsense prescribed by the masses. A light and airy feel but with the occasional rock-out moments.
"Catharsis of a Heretic" is very much the same, with clean vocals and ends as soon as it starts with nothing much breaking it up and making it stand out (apart from the instrument usage).
"Swallowed by the Earth" adds some of the same and keeps the theme running again with some creative drumming in parts (sounding quite like Mastodon's Brann Dailor in places, jamming nicely with the guitars), again a few growls are thrown in to keep you on your toes, but nothing major, so far it is a very inoffensive album with a creative musical production.
"Epiphany" starts out quite sombre, and is somewhat reminiscent of Avenged Sevenfold (:yucky:), however, it soon moves on and gets more orchestral, adding an extra flavour into the mix and keeping things nicely running along.
Following on and "The Origin of Species" starts with a dash of metal undertones, indeed partway in it seems there is finally a longer section of metal for diversity.
The final song, "The Origin of God" sounds quite similar to "The Origin of Species" musically, with more of the metal influence finally breaking through, with a sax breakdown at the end through the closing of the album.
Unappreciated subtleties are a key part of this first part album, meaning that the majority of people are going to gloss straight over it and pass it off as selling-out, when this simply isn't the case...
Creative usage of sudden orchestral interludes and sudden heavy outbursts keep the sound from becoming stale, but the albums fails to get above simmering point in many places.
That isn't the say that the album is poor, it just isn't enough of a mix from a band with pieces such as Precambrian under their belt, it's just a little bit same-y in places, as to how it ties in with Anthropocentric we will have to wait and see, but i for one would bet on it being the heavier side of things, which would add in the larger mixture that would make the combined album shine.
Fans of The Oceans lighter stuff will be relishing this album with it's predominantly clean lyrics and smooth lines, but for those that have come to expect a vast variance from The Ocean it is somewhat disappointing. It is however still a very good album, and if it had been released by another band then i think i would have been less critical of the lack of overall variance.
In short a very good album, catering for the mellower metalers which should offer a wider market appeal than previous releases being quite 'radio friendly' overall.
Not bad, but not astounding given that it is The Ocean.
Pros
Exceptional packaging
Creative instrumentation
The other half is still to follow
Cons
Gets quite stale at a few points sounding recycled
The lack of variation (sure, variation is there but it is mainly short lived) compared to previous releases
Therefore i'll give it a 6 out of 10 - A worthy purchase
Re: Review: The Ocean Collective - Heliocentric
Anyone listened to this?
I've also noticed that the Google link-in fails :rolleyes:: http://forums.hexus.net/f119/review-...entric-184709/
but is cached correctly: http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...ient=firefox-a
