The Ocean Make Friends With Russia

The Ocean is a beast of a band. A collective, if you will. The brainchild of guitarist and primary songwriter Robin Staps, The Ocean have been creating their thunderous, complex, yet memorable epics for over a decade now, and soon they will be unleashing a 3-DVD set on all of us. The discs will contain a complete documentary on the history of the band (which I hope includes info on their revolving door of singers and cavalcade of guest vocalists early on in their career), TWO complete live shows and what has surprisingly captivated the shit out of me...Their tour video blogs.

i know, it sounds very exciting to hear a band talk about random nonsense along their endless tour routes, but this one is very, very different. The Ocean released two monoliths of albums in 2011 and decided to go out and tour these things proper style...By heading to Russia and even out to the vastness of Siberia. The shows look like they were all incredible, with the band in top form, now with a finally stable lineup. Lots of partying with fans, making new fans, playing venues with stages too small for coffeehouse acoustic performances, let alone The Ocean.

Check these out and buy all of their records. All of them are brilliant.

NOTE: Trying to understand the concepts of their releases makes me feel 12% smarter. Could just be me, I suppose.

Tour Blog Part 1:
Tour Blog Part 2:

I'm Re-Learning Science

You can too, thanks to The Ocean and their latest installment, the 2-disc ass-rumbling behemoth they call Precambrian. Disc one is 22 minutes of traditional sick metal and hardcore, while the second disc is a lot of new ground to cover, bringing in elements of classical, atmospheric shoegazer rock, piano interludes and a lot more. Not the usual fare for a hc/metal band from Germany. Of course, The Ocean is not a usual band. It's made up of 1,245 dudes (seriously, about 20) at any given time. They have many guest vocalists, including Caleb (Cave In, Zozobra, Old Man Gloom), Nate (Converge, Doomriders) and Sean (Coalesce)...Right there I was sold.

Precambrian is a complex concept record, following their sophomore release ad Metal Blade debut, Aeolian. These dudes are like, smart and stuff.

I actually have to go listen to this now, as typing about it doesn't do it justice. Heavy where you want it to be, mellow where you'd never expect it. Simple chords strung together, woven with odd-time breaks and quite impressive chops. This is progressive metal at its finest. I don't mean Prog, I mean true metal music transcending all genres, yet still kicking you square in your nuts.

Buy this record and support THE OCEAN and go check 'em out: The Ocean Collective

2006 live clip: