The Ocean – Heliocentric
April 12th, 2010
Progressive Metal
Metal Blade Records
Berlin, Germany
After the past week we finally come to the end of Discography Deep Dive as it relates to The Ocean with their fifth full length record, Heliocentric. Dropping in 2010, this album came out at the exact perfect time to grasp me and not let go. It was 2009 when I first delved headfirst into the world of metal, and prog bands like The Ocean were right at the forefront of my tastes. As such this album holds a special place in my heart. It was hugely influential on me, and spoke to my tastes both musically as well as philosophically. So how does it hold up in the modern era? We’re nearly 15 years after the release of this record and I was curious to see if I would like it just as much now as I did at the time.
Well, it turns out that, yes, while there are some flaws to this record I found immense joy in reaching back through time and giving Heliocentric another spin or two. Perhaps its just the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia colouring my vision but I don’t believe that’s the case. This is truly a fantastic record with some of what I consider to be The Ocean’s best songs. “Firmament” is easily my favourite song that the band has ever written and I still find myself occasionally humming the melodies of either the riffs or the vocals from time to time all these years later.
This was the first record released by the band to feature long standing vocalist Loïc Rossetti, who would go on to front the band right up to the current day. Rossetti’s throaty, clean vocals have become a staple of The Ocean’s sound, and while he may not have the same level of aggression in his voice as those who came before, in some ways it actually makes more sense for The Ocean’s music to be catered to through this kind of vocal approach. The harsh vocals definitely retain an air of the metalcore-style screaming present on previous records, but the cleans take on more of a modern progressive metal atmosphere that is vaguely reminiscent of bands from the djent world like Tesseract or Periphery (though with much less nasal whining).
This album also sees founding and sole remaining original member Robin Staps on guitars and keyboards joined by fellow guitarist Jonathan Nido and bassist Louis Jucker. Together this trio of stringmen bring forth some of the most memorable and intensely progressive riffing that the band has seen up until this point. The guitar and bass work on here is simultaneously crushing and heavy while also being rather catchy and infectious. Tracks like the previously mentioned “Firmament” and “The First Commandment of the Luminaries” are downright addictive when it comes to the riffing.
Aside from the guitar work much of this album is accompanied by subtle instrumentation from other devices scattered throughout. Short but effective passages of strings like violins and other sections of keyboards are built up in the overall structure of the record to impact the listener at specific points of quiet drifting, whereas at other points they converge together with the metal instrumentation to produce an overwhelming feeling of grandiosity. I appreciate how subtle these moments are, but they do the album a great service by accentuating the already fantastic traditional metal songs with emotionally gripping symphonic elements.
This album also sees the arrival of Luc Hess behind the drums, who, might I say, is a fantastic fit for this band’s music. Hess is a magnificent drummer who understands the intricacies of what makes progressive metal drumming such a joy to listen to. His subtlety is not lost on me as he fills the quieter sections of this record with untold amounts of ghost notes and intricate, jazz-adjacent rhythms on the ride cymbal. Aside from this his ability to perform more traditional metal style drumming is excellent. The pulverizing rolls on the toms as well as the passages of double bass machine gun fire hit so hard, especially when these songs build up to a crescendo and explode with a release of emotional energy.
The production here is great too. There’s something a bit more human about this album than all of the ones that preceded it. Here I feel like The Ocean finally achieved and perfected what their records need to sound like. The vocals are so clear and crisp. The drums snap and crackle while the guitars feel frosted over with the mist of the cold Atlantic. The symphonic elements are neither buried nor overburdening in juxtaposition with the guitars. Everything sits where it should and it makes for a pleasurable listening experience.
This is easily my favourite record by The Ocean, and as I postulated in the opening of this review, I was uncertain if that would wind up being the case. However, after revisiting this one as well as the four records that preceded it, I came to determine that at least within the context of the band’s career up until the release of this record, this one is my most cherished. It’s emotionally gripping, compositionally complex, sonically beautiful, and grandiose in its themes and motifs. I’d highly recommend this record to anyone who loves progressive music.
Final Verdict: 9.5/10
Awesome
Favourite Tracks:
“Firmament”
“The First Commandment of the Luminaries”
“Ptolemy Was Wrong”
“Metaphysics of the Hangman”
“Epiphany”
~ Akhenaten
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