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HELIOCENTRICTHE OCEANMetal Blade CDGerman collective The Ocean has finally unleashed first half of what seems to be one of the most hyped releases of 2010. and for the first time in their career they have met the mixed opinions about their work. It is crucial to say at the very beginning that "Heliocentric" and "Anthropocentric" (which will be released in October) revolve around the analysis and critics of Christian views of life from a different standpoints; „Heliocentric“, as the title itself suggests, is based on the theories that the Earth revolves around the Sun which is in center of the universe, developed by Copernicus and Gallilei, and the Church’s reaction to it. Overtly ambitious? Well, that word simply doesn't exist in The Ocean language - just remember their previous "Precambrian" which was based on evolution of time. So we put that important aspect of this release out of the way, so let me concentrate on the most important feature – the actual music. I have mentioned that the reactions on „Heliocentric“ were not that great so far, and the thing is that The Ocean ventured out of their territory too much, for some people’s likings anyway. Their universe was always very vast with inclusions of various elements into the overall heavy picture, but this time The Ocean decided to explore their mellower / rockish side and put the crushing approach bit out of picture (but it said that the upcoming „Anthropocentric“ will be much more in the metal waters and complement this one quite nicely). The lions share of that change came from the change of vocalist, the new guy named Loic Rossetti employs whole lot of of accessible clean singing with only occasional strong grunts, but the music itself follows that route. The Ocean are no strangers to string / brass orchestrations but this time it is largely employed into the picture, also the accent is put on clean guitar, sorta post rockish from time to time, song developments. The moments where you will be reminded on The Ocean’s past endeavors will arise here and there and you will get crushed under the heavy walls of guitars but quickly thereafter the songs will develop into calmer areas. I guess that it simply too much for some people, and also to speak the truth Loic's vox sometimes sounds very poppy but I must say that the album is mostly masterfully done in true The Ocean tradition, it is just in different style. Why I say „mostly“? Well, there are some hiccups along the way of „Heliocentric“. After the brilliant start, the middle of the album is a bit problematic with songs like "Ptolemy was wrong" or "Catharsis of a heretic", which are just subdue and below the standards of this bands, and also the vocals ruin the picture a little bit with even sleazy melodies. But luckily as you reach the end of the album and fantastic ending "The origin of species" / "The origin of God" all will be forgotten. So the album does have its weaker moments but it not enough to drag it into the mud, in my eyes at least. After all, with ever-moving organism such as The Ocean and especially bearing „Proterozoic“ (second disc of „Precambrian“) in mind, such a move into this kind of playing was inevitable /expected. It will be nice to hear "Anthropocentric" soon and to see if it will make nice duality with this album in a way "Hadean / Archaean“ & „Proterozoic“ made varied "Precambrian" one whole. Maybe "Heliocentric" doesn't match the brilliant "Precambrian", but it is more than capable to stand on its two legs and I am looking forward to see The Ocean in June in Belgrade with our band Consecration. Slobodan Trifunović (8.5) |
PUBLISHED ISSUESMETAL SOUND #mpu vorbereitung |
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