The Ocean – Aeolian
November 28th, 2005
Progressive Sludge Metal / Metalcore / Post Metal
Metal Blade Records
Berlin, Germany
We continue Discography Deep Dive this month with the third album from German post metal and progressive metal outfit The Ocean, Aeolian. Upon revisiting the discography of this band I was shocked to find that Aeolian surprisingly came out as being easily the heaviest of their early career releases. It’s interesting to compare this one to the ones that came before it because of how much has changed regarding the music. While this album is still weird and maintains a foothold in sludge metal and post metal, there’s much more of an influence from metalcore on this album, and that greatly effects the way the entire piece compares to the ones that came before.
Right from the opening track of “The City in the Sea” we’re gifted with crushing riff after crushing riff, each one using a certain degree of syncopation and deep, low chugs that reflect the pelagic nature of the music of this band. The album wastes next to no time in delivering its sonic message to the listener, that The Ocean are here to sonically crush their listeners. It’s a goal that I believe is achieved across the 53 minute runtime of this record. The punchiness of this recording is just so gargantuan and bombastic and it doesn’t cease from the moment the album begins to the moment it ends. The auditory violence is continued on the spastic “Dead Serious and Highly Professional”, which does little to shed the metalcore allegations.
The vocals are provided once again by Meta, and Nico Webers, both of whom are significantly more present throughout this album than they were on Fluxion. Meta handles most of the lead vocals, backed up by Webers, and both have a noticeably different approach. One has more of a high pitched metalcore rasp while the other has a lower, gruffer voice that sounds more like something you’d hear in sludge metal or hardcore. Occasionally the two will trade lines or sing over one another, such as on the track “Austerity”, which produces a cool effect.
The riffs from Robin Staps and Jonathan Heine are perhaps the most brutal, crushing, and despondent of The Ocean’s catalog thus far. Groovy chugs and syncopated rhythms coat this record from front to back, no doubt with bands like Meshuggah having been a large influence on the guitarists here, especially on a song like “Killing the Flies”. So many of the riffs are dripping with influence from the metalcore world as well, with the band taking cues from what sounds like Converge, Botch, Cave In and other early 90’s metalcore acts. The guitars can sometimes even get a bit skronky, but they never delve too far away from the sludge metal that acts as the baseline.
The regular string instruments are joined by orchestral elements programmed by Staps, including horns, strings, and synth work. While this element was present on Fogdiver and Fluxion, here it feels a bit more entrenched in the overall music than it has been in the past. On Fluxion the synth and orchestral bits felt more loud and in your face, sometimes taking central stage. Here it feels more like it’s a part of the mixture, blending in so well with the guitars, bass, and drums that you sometimes don’t even realize they’re there. There’s a healthy amount of experimentation on here that still retains aspects from Fluxion but like with the symphonic elements they aren’t overshadowing any other aspect of the album.
Percussionists Torge Leissman and Gerd Kornmann deliver easily their strongest performances yet. From the crazily complex syncopated Meshuggah-esque beats on “Killing the Flies” to the straight up melodic death metal / thrash ripper that is “One with the Ocean”, Leissman and Kornmann have proven themselves time and time again across this album to be extremely capable behind their respective instruments. The drumming actually pulls a lot of the weight on this record given just how percussive and thick it is when stacked against Fluxion and Fogdiver. So much of the heaviness is derived from the bass drum, the sheer force at which the snare is smacked, and the metalcore style drum approach.
I’m not sure if I’d call Aeolian my favourite album out of The Ocean’s earlier work, but it easily stands out as being the most unique amongst their earlier work. It’s unapologetically heavy and absolutely sonically devastating, both in terms of the sheer chaotic instrumentation as well as the brutalizing production job. Many of the cuts on here feel like they could go toe to toe with cuts from bands like the aforementioned Converge in terms of the unrestrained frenetic energy that exudes from them. Aeolian is at least in the conversation when it comes to discussions about the best material The Ocean has ever released.
Final Verdict: 9/10
Awesome
Favourite Tracks:
“The City in the Sea”
“Killing the Flies”
“Necrobabes.com”
“One with the Ocean”
“Swoon”
“Queen of the Food Chain”
~ Akhenaten