THE OCEAN „Aeolian”

The history of 'The Ocean' began in 2000 when guitarist Robin Staps relocated to Berlin intending to build a band that he had envisioned, the result, 'The Ocean'. For two years he searched for musicians advertising in his local newspapers and trade magazines. In 2002 the band plays for their first gig in a sold-out club in Berlin. Fast forward to 2005, 'The Ocean' release their fourth full length album through Metal Blade Records titled “Aeolian”. “Aeolian” is a lot heavier than his predecessor “Fluxion”, although both were apparently recorded at the same time.

“Aeolian” starts with out with distorted guitars that are out of tempo, brutal vocals and a rhythm section with an
attitude to match. This rather new band has managed to form a style of music that is a combination of THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, MASTODON and MESHUGGAH. To describe the music of THE OCEAN, words like ´technical´, 'chaotic', ´extreme´, would pop up.
And that would not even come close to preparing you for “Aeolian”. Adding to the mix is a list of guest vocalists that include Tomas Hallbom (BREACH), Nate Newton (CONVERGE, OLD MAN GLOOM) and Sean Ingram (COALESCE) and you have a few reasons more to pick up “Aeolian”. To truly understand and potentially enjoy the music of “Aeolian”, you must immerse
yourself into the dark depths of 'THE OCEAN' and search out, with immeasurable pain and pressure, what this band is trying to convey. However, in order to get even closer to what´s going on with THE OCEAN, you may have check their previous album, “Fluxion”, since both “Aeolian” and “Fluxion” were recorded at the same time and together create a more complete musical experience.

“Aeolian” is definitely hard to define being very complex and personally form me, hard to get into, with constant changes, changing melodies, and brutal vocals, combined with orchestral parts. Nor is this the average album that you would listen while driving to work. Slow and groovy at times, straight forward at others, with no less than six different singers, covering all types of brutal singing. The songs structures are complex, which will require multiple listens to start enjoying the music. Unfortunately, this complexity leads to songs that somehow spoil the whole album as a result.

Another factor that contributes to the albums complexity is the long playtime of each track, one is easily distracted
by the chaotic structure of the songs and therefore a loss of attentiveness is high. Don't get me wrong, the musicians
of this band are very skilled and this album is very well played but the tracks simply last too long.

Ultimately, beneath all of their elaborate packaging and big words like 'Aeolian', 'austerity' and 'inertia' is a band
that really just wants set themselves apart by rattling a few heads by shaking things up a bit. Considering that,
it's all done with an incredibly amount of musical precision and finesse that on tracks such as the near
ten-minute “Austerity” is very impressive to hear. Yet on tracks such as “Deadly Serious and Highly Professional” the band shows that they can be an overloaded metal machine when they want to be!

Another track of note is the laughably named “Necrobabes.com” which compared to the other songs on this album absolutely does fit here and provides a low point half-way through the album. One thing for sure though is that this record is a technically impressive display of energy that should bring the band greater attention and success especially with Metal Blade as thier record label.

If you are a fan of any of the bands mentioned in this review, then you will enjoy this album, as it will definitely appeal to those tastes.

note: 6/10

Tracklist

The City In The Sea
Dead Serious & Highly Professional
Austerity
Killing The Flies
Une Saison En Enfer
Necrobabes.com
One With The Ocean
Swoon
Queen Of The Food-Chain
Inertia

Line-up

Torge Liebmann – Drums
Jonathan Heine – Bass
Robin Staps – Guitars, Samples, Arrangements
Gerd Kornmann – Percussion, Tools
Meta – Main Vocals
Nico Webers – Electronics/Vocals
Tomas Hallborn, Nate Newton, Sean Ingram, Ercuement Kasalar, Carsten Albrecht – Additional Vocals
Andreas Hillebrand – Additional Live Guitars
Nils Lindenhayn – Visuals