Genre : Progressive metal, Post-metal
Release date : September 25th, 2020
Label : Pelagic Records
FFO : Tool, Isis, Neurosis, Cult of Luna
It was only fitting that I would talk about my most anticipated album of the year for the first anniversary of the existence of this page.
It's also partly the reason why I took my sweet time with this one and I have to say, I unfortunately have some mixed opinions about it.
Once the blindfold of excitement on release day had fallen off, I found myself having a few doubts about certain aspects of the album which I wish I didn't.
I know for a fact by listening to interviews that the band had a very different approach to the songwriting on Part II compared to Part I.
The arrangements for Part I had all already been finished long before the recording sessions whilst the creative process for Part II wasn't as "rigid" and evolved along the course of the recording sessions and had some inputs from various members of the band instead of it being guitarist Robin Staps's main body of work which is why it has this more introspective and meditative approach to it.
On one hand, I feel like this new approach to songwriting for this album allowed more experimentation with different genres you wouldn't usually hear in The Ocean's music (or at least not since their very early works) ; For instance : the black metal section in "Pleistocene" which came as one of the album's biggest surprises and works wonders in the way it fits within the song, or the third track "Palaeocene" which is heavily inspired by old-school hardcore punk and features former Breach member Tomas Liljedahl on vocals.
But on the other hand, I feel like this process has taken away some of the intricacies and crushing precision that Part I can boast.
Part II is also made out of more shorter tracks instead of a few lengthy tracks which really changes the way the album flows and strangely enough, it can make Part II feel shorter than it's predecessor even though that is not the case and, dare I say it, less memorable perhaps even when it comes to those shorter tracks.
For instance, I still don't really know what to think of "Eocene" : Do I enjoy the fact that it repeats the same motif from "Jurassic|Cretaceous" and feeds into the concept of eternal recurrance Part I dealt with or do I just take it for lazy songwriting that should have been left out of the final cut? Which is something I never thought I would think when it comes to this band honestly.
Part I knew what it had to do and it did it perfectly because it had been planned out in such a way for years beforehand, whilst Part II doesn't come off with having that same sense of predetermined, focused direction and it doesn't play in its favour unfortunately.
Perhaps it would have made more sense if the band had kept this approach for whatever comes after their Phanerozoic cycle, it might have made for a more coherent ensemble between the two Parts in my opinion, even though I understand the appeal of having two Parts that "collide" into one another since that is the whole idea behind the main concept of Part II.
It also feels like the band wanted to focus more on melody on this album since I find most of the tracks to be much more centered around clean vocals compared to Part I which felt more balanced in that sense where it seemlessly mixed crushing walls of sound with expertly woven-in soothing gasps of melody.
The closing track illustrates this perfectly in my opinion, where Part I ended on a bang as almost all lifeforms were eradicated from the face of the Earth, Part II ends with a whimper and the promise of proliferating life.
Now don't get me wrong, I still find this to be a very good album packed with strong musical highlights : The opening track "Triassic" and it's awesome use of vocal harmonies and delay, the ominous horns in "Jurassic" that brilliantly capture the atmosphere of it's grave subject matter and the urgent synth transition that perfectly introduces "Cretaceous" and Jonas Renkse's guest appearance reinforcing the apocalyptic feel of the track, the clean vocal melody on "Pliocene" and of course, the hypnotic and downright depressing "Pleistocene" and it's crippling atmosphere of overwhelming dread.
No matter the opinions one can have about this twin album, it is impossible to disregard and belittle the amount of work, research and attention to detail that went into the making of these two albums.
I don't think I'd be exaggerating if I said they are probably one of the biggest musical undertakings in recent years and for that alone, The Ocean Collective deserve the attention and respect of everyone.
Part I genuinely helped me get through an unpleasant and uncertain part of my life and Part II is currently bringing me comfort in another rough patch; And even though it doesn't quite hit the same spots as well as Part I did (and still does), despite the flaws I find in this album, it will definitely be on my top albums list of the year. I just wish I could have placed it a little higher.
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