31. The Ocean – Pelagial (2013) In 2013, the albums I listened to most were this one, Karniool’s ‘Asymmetry’, ‘The Mountain’ by Haken and ‘Impermanent Resonance’ by James LaBrie. I think this one might actually have received the most plays, mainly on drives through the dark. For some reason, I recall borrowing my dad’s car all summer in 2013 and this CD was on basically all the time.
What we have here is an album that’s musically a journey into the depths of the ocean, with the music getting more and more intense, less melodic and darker with every subsequent track, whilst the lyrics tell a story of a journey into the psyche. A mixture of psychological weirdness and musical ocean-diving, apparently. The Ocean released this album in two versions; one version with vocals, and a completely instrumental one. To me, the version with vocals blows the instrumental one out of the water (ha. ha.), but I can imagine that if you’re not fond of growls, the instrumental one would be more to your liking. The band apparently recorded the entire album with the entire of leaving out the vocals, but the vocalist stepped in to deliver vocals anyway. The band then toured without vocals – and I even saw them live playing the entire album in full, instrumentally.
The Ocean play a modern blend of progressive metal, with lots of guitars, some atmospheric keyboards and many recurring themes. They don’t really do very much lead-playing at all, but try to shape moods in one way or another. The general recurring theme of the album, the descending into the ocean, is reflected very well in the music. Where the first tracks are very melodic and even uplifting to some extent (
Mesopelagic: Into the Uncanny), the final track on the album,
Benthic: The Origin of Our Wishes is based on a very heavy recurring motif, that probably depicts the weight of the ocean on top of you, with almost no melody left.
This album has some great flow to it, which is also a good reason why it could keep me up during the nightly drives in the summer of 2013. I can surely see why this album is not for everybody. If you’re intrigued nonetheless, I’d say my favourite track,
Hadopelagic II: Let Them Believe, is a good example of what this album is about.
Favourite song:Hadopelagic II: Let Them Believe
Other songs worth checking out: Bathyalpelagic III: Disequillibrated, Benthic: The Origin of Our Wishes, Abyssopelagic II: Signals of Anxiety
Other stuff by this band: Of their other albums, I like ‘Anthropocentric’ the most, but a lot of their other material is heavier and less melodic. To be frank, this is by far the album of theirs I know best.