#3: The Ocean - Pelagial
Man, this album is the definition of a grower. When I first heard it, I thought it was alright, nothing amazing but I got it on a whim afterwards, and kept listening to it, and... well, practically every time it got better and better, somehow. Post-metal and Prog metal apparently seem like two genres just made for each other and this is probably the most balanced combination of the two I've heard thus far.
I think the strength lies partially in the track progression, getting heavier and darker as the album progresses, but also in the fact that damn near every song is great nor do any songs outshine the others. It's a very tightly-written album that doesn't waste space even when the tracks themselves get more sprawling and deep in the back half of the album.
Also of note, I will be referring to every song by its surname rather than the full name, since it's much easier and much less typing to do so, and it's still easy to tell which song I'm talking about where. Just a note before I get into discussing the songs proper.
The most important thing about the album is its structure, and the flow of the songs. Epipelagic provides a soft, ambient beginning, with Into the Uncanny ranging the full spectrum from beginning to end, starting quiet and atmospheric and eventually building into crushing heaviness. And from there the album escalates, song by song - each of the Bathyalpelagic songs aims to outdo the previous in heaviness and intensity, and it's not until the album comes full circle at Boundless Vasts do we get a bit of a release of tension. From there, the album builds in intensity again to Cognitive Dissonance, which phases out energy and replaces it with a sluggish, crushing heaviness that ends the album out. It's really a ride and because the album structure is so important, it leaves each and every song in a unique place - the heaviness of the first half is a completely different beast from the heaviness of the second half.
Of course, that wouldn't work if the songs themselves weren't great on their own, but... practically every last one would be a huge standout on most other albums - here that's merely the standard. I'll get the weaker tracks out of the way first; Omen of the Deep more exists as a bridge between two tracks than as its own track, and it's okay on its own but doesn't have time to do much of anything. And The Origin of Our Wishes, the final track, fails to live up to the rest of the album - it's somehow too mindlessly heavy without being heavy enough at times; its "verses" especially are lacking a "full" sound that they really would need to work, but it does end pretty well.
One interesting feature of this album is the occasional fantastic chorus; not all songs feature one, but the choruses that do appear are always really powerful and evocative. The Wish in Dreams has a frantic and powerful chorus courtesy of the song's dissonant guitar leads and frantic drumwork. Signals of Anxiety succeeds in raw power and beauty alone, absolutely breathtaking highlight of the track. And Let Them Believe uses its chorus as a climax for the songs two circles of rising and falling intensity, and it's definitely a worthy climax.
Another recurring feature is excellent riffs. The main riff of Into the Uncanny that appears right before the first verse is such a good riff that I'd love to see an entire song based around it, and they knew how good it was since Boundless Vasts later reprises that entire section. Impasses both starts out with a cool riff and the entire second half is based around almost djenty rhythmic riffing that works way better than it has any right to. Let Them Believe has a cool groove of a main riff that's flowing through most every part of the song, and Cognitive Dissonance has a jagged and harsh riff that I've never gotten sick of, followed by a fantastic sludgy and almost doom-metal ending riff. That's to say nothing for the variety of other great riffs scattered throughout the album.
But the real draw that keeps this band distinct in my mind is the emotional presence of the album. Even aside from the aforementioned choruses, this album is moody as all heck. Into the Uncanny is a delicate balance of quieter, prettier and atmospheric moments and intense heavier moments. The middle section of Impasses has probably the best moment of the entire album, a piano line with the rest of the band building behind it; the way the heavier guitar kicks in is downright chilling, especially accompanying the "I don't believe in anything... but I believe in you" vocal delivery. Disequillibrated builds into probably the most frantic moments of the entire disc, bordering on death metal, and the harsh vocals bring the intensity they need to be effective. Boundless Vasts uses the framework of previous tracks only to subvert them, instead building down to a soft and somber atmosphere. Even outside of the chorus, Signals of Anxiety has tons of emotional presence, washed-out and reverb-soaked harsh vocals delivering the verses over the quiet atmosphere of guitar and piano. Let The Believe is just an utter emotional rollercoaster, building up and down, up and down, though its slight flaw is that it doesn't quite reach the emotional climax at the end that it feels like it deserves. And Cognitive Dissonance ends on an absolutely visceral note, a complete breakdown of any hope remaining on the album.
I'm trying to touch on absolutely everything this album has to offer, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention all the little things. The subtleties, the small musical ideas, the things that takes this from being a great album to an amazing one. From the very first track, the primary elements are piano and watery sound samples, but there's some lovely strings and subtle drumwork adding to that atmosphere. As far as Into the Uncanny goes, my favorite "little" thing is the punchy guitar riffs at the end of every bar in the second verse. The Wish in Dreams has a nice little piano interlude at the end between it and Disequillibrated that serves as a nice breather. Boundless Vasts brings back some more lovely strings in its quieter moments, and Signals of Anxiety has nice tiny little synth melody between the second verse and second chorus that I just adore. Let Them Believe is just jam-packed with these tiny things; the intro has a twinkly synth line and some more subtle strings, there's a very electronic synth doing some noodling under the first postchorus, and beyond that there's so many tiny little changes between the first and second loops of the song's structure that I cant even list them all. As far as Cognitive Dissonance goes, there's an atmospheric section in the middle with a stellar bass groove, and the track ends with a gorgeous synth interlude over some more watery samples. It's a nice little breather between the last two tracks.
I'm actually really disappointed that an instrumental version of the album comes bundled with it, I feel like the album loses a lot without the vocals. On one hand, because of the high quality of everything else here, the vocals end up being the weakest element, but the songs feel empty without them, even as dense as they are. I only ever listened to this version once though, and it's not like I'm ever forced to listen to it, so it doesn't factor into the album's final score.
I've completely and utterly failed to keep this as succinct as I'd prefer, but that's because there's just so much to talk about - so many things worth pointing out because this is a dense and fantastic album utterly jam-packed with ideas and raw power, yet smart enough to be layered and subtle at every opportunity it gets. The most recent listen of this album I did during reviewing feels like the best listen I've gotten of this album yet, and I feel like the next one's only going to be even better; it's amazing how much replay value this album has.
Favorite Tracks: Let Them Believe, Into the Uncanny, Impasses, Signals of Anxiety, Cognitive Dissonance, The Wish in Dreams
Least Favorite Tracks: The Origin of Our Wishes, Omen of the Deep
9.5/10DTF Addendum: This kind of crept up on me, but in a good way. I actually didn't go into this with that high of expectations and BAM there it is, #3 purchase of the year. First one to hit a 5 star rating on this list, too. Yeah. Only wish the ending was better. Also, never listen to the instrumental version ever, there's no point.
Topic: Parama's 2015 Retrospective List: #1: I'm Not Sorry For That At All (Read 30878 times)