The Ocean Release New Song “Permian: The Great Dying” and Announce Double Album

Will 2018 be the year of The Ocean? I predict it will be. And it begins right now.

The German prog/post-metal masters have released “Permian: The Great Dying,” the first new song we’re hearing from Phanerozoic I: Palaezoic, which will come out in November. The album is part one of a two-fer experience, with Phanerozoic II coming in 2020. The suite is typically grand, no surprise for The Ocean, and serves as the missing link between between the albums Precambrian (2007) and Heliocentric / Anthropocentric (2010), both musically and conceptually, focusing on “the evolution and diversification of life during the Phanerozoic eon, and the destruction of it during five mass extinction events.” Mastermind Robin Staps wrote the album as he has all of the band’s previous albums… in seclusion in a house by the ocean. Drums were tracked at Sigur Ros’ own Sundlaugin Studios in Iceland with long-time friend and producer Julien Fehlmann, while the remainder of the album was tracked in Berlin.

Whew! With all that out of the way (and believe me, there is MUCH more we can and will dive into regarding the specifics of this album)… how is the new song??

Big sigh of relief: it’s fucking great. Musically it feels similar to a lot of the material on Pelagial (2013) and parts of Precambrian, alternating between devastatingly heavy riffs and grooves and atmospheric, almost ethereal passages. The Ocean’s sweet spot has always been meshing progressive arrangements with post-metal song structures, and that’s certainly the case on “Permian: The Great Dying” to dazzling effect. I’ve listened to it three times already and I’ll need to listen to it at least three more before I feel like I’ve got a firm grip on everything that’s going on. THIS is why I love The Ocean so much!

The lineup on this album consists of Robin, Paul Seidel on drums (Robin’s partner at Pelagic Records who joined the band full-time in 2014), Mattias Hägerstrand on bass and Loïc Rossetti on vocals. They also recorded with Vincent Membrez on piano and longtime live cellist Dalai Theofilopoulou. 

Phanerozoic I: Palaezoic comes out on November 2nd via Metal Blade and can be pre-ordered here.