There has never been a vinyl set so lavishly presented as this. You may ask yourself why SonicAbuse waited so long to present a review of The Ocean’s masterly ‘Heliocentric’ album, bearing in mind it’s been out for an age. Quite simply, we felt it best to put it side by side with the ‘Anthropocentric’ companion album and review the whole thing as the gloriously epic conceit which it undoubtedly is. Not since Billy Corgan and the Pumpkins attempted Mellon Collie has so large and ambitious an album set been undertaken – sure there have been 2 CD albums, but this HUGE concept album, spread across six sides of vinyl (the remaining two – one per album – have been beautifully etched) is a glorious, loud, brutal, melodic, life-affirming, savage, bold and intelligent masterpiece that not only maintains interest throughout the two hours or so of music but which also actually has something genuinely intelligent to say about humanity.
The box set
First a word about presentation. There are a number of ways you can choose to get hold of this set, and undeniably the music is of key importance, but so much work has gone into the design and production of this set that to ignore it would be stunningly ignoble. For our review we have chosen to review the vinyl box set – a limited edition set that contains both albums and which is limited to 1500 copies. The box itself is a thing of wonder. Foil stamped with the album’s ambitious artwork, the case represents the zodiac and the astrological symbols while the side of the box has the artist name and album titles stamped upon it. It looks amazing and even though Royal Mail dropped mine a few times (and possibly played football with it too) it is a sturdy case that is more than up to the task of containing the heavy slabs of vinyl within. More impressive still is the vinyl itself. ‘Heliocentric’ is presented in a black gatefold package with working dials on the front that represent the planets and the astrological symbols. It looks amazing, as does the metallic ink used to print the inlay. The records themselves are housed in printed inner bags and the album is pressed on 180gm coloured vinyl (disc 1 is white, disc 2 translucent blue) while side D has been intricately etched with some truly stunning artwork which needs to be seen to be appreciated. The package also includes lyrics in the form of tarot cards, all with exclusive artwork on them which enhance the set no end. ‘Anthropocentric’, meanwhile, comes in a blue tinged gatefold with similar dials and packaging but different coloured vinyl and a simple double sided insert instead of more tarot cards. The whole thing packs nicely into its box and looks stunning. It is this attention to detail (which carries over into the band’s music) that makes The Ocean so stunning and if you know a fan of progressive or heavy music then this may well be the perfect Christmas gift.
Heliocentric
Having drooled over the packaging long enough, the music is why we’re actually here and this in no way disappoints. Continuing from where the second disc of ‘Precambrian’ left off, the band have largely eschewed their early meshuggah-esque rumblings for something for jazzy and progressive. The opening trio of ‘Shamahim’ ( a short introduction piece), ‘Firmament’ (heavy as hell, yet with a beautiful underlying sense of melody and lyrical consciousness) and the epic ‘the first commandment of the luminaries’ (complete with huge guitars, jazzy piano interludes and vocal harmonies) says it all really – The Ocean have truly come of age with a piece of work so utterly remarkable no one will be able to touch it for years to come. Much like Tool’s ‘Aenima’ set, the construction is so intelligently wrought and planned that, like the pyramids, one just has to gawp before even beginning to try to understand it. And that’s just the first side.
Side B opens with ‘Ptolemy was wrong’ which is the biggest departure yet for the band. A piano led track with beautifully clean vocals, it’s a skeletal track which develops slowly into a slow march with drums and violin augmenting the basic elements all of which highlights the diversity of the material on offer. ‘Metaphysics of the hangman’ meanwhile nicely contrasts the previous track with an onslaught of guitar which then transmutes into a track which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Jeff Buckley’s ‘Grace’ album up until the point that the guitars kick off again scattering the melody and introducing the harder vocals so frequently employed in previous outings. ‘Cartharsis of a heretic’ which is another track which sees the band trying new things, sees a Soundgarden element (if Soundgarden played Radiohead covers) creep into proceedings. It’s a brave song which is as fascinating and deep as the monumental riffs found elsewhere on the disc. The final track on side B is ‘Swallowed by the earth’ a dynamic track that is relatively slow but livened up by huge bursts of schizophrenic guitar all of which build up to a huge metallic climax nicely rounding out the side.
Side C opens with ‘Epiphany’ a short piece that paves the way for the extended brutality of ‘the origin of species’ a lengthy, dynamic workout that shifts between flailing guitar and moody soundscapes that wouldn’t sound out of place on a massive attack album. It’s a stunning piece of work that eats up the majority of the side before ‘the origin of God’ closes the side, and the album, in a suitably enigmatic fashion preparing you for the stunning follow up, ‘Anthropocentric’ for which fans of the band had to wait almost six months.
Anthropocentric
Certainly the heavier of the two releases, Anthropocentric contains similar musical and lyrical themes but set to a searing backdrop of syncopated drums, raging guitars and raw-throated vocals. It’s still not as heavy as the first disc of ‘Precambrian’ but it comes close offering up the darker side of this multiple disc meditation on God and Man. Opening side A is the title track, a monumental rush of pure metallic fury, it manages to capture the rush-of-consciousness nature of the lyrics within its fragmented riffs and it’s an astonishing opening gambit that will flatten anyone who felt that ‘Heliocentric’ was on the soft side. After the lengthy opening, there’s only room on the first side for the brief ‘The grand inquisitor I, Karamazov baseness’, a dark, off-kilter and malevolent track that easily conjures up images of its sadistic subject matter.
Side B has far more material packed onto it, housing four tracks and opening with ‘she was the universe’ which transpires to be the most energetically LOUD track on the set- a staggering juggernaut of a track set to a riff that could level buildings, this will undoubtedly be a live favourite, while the myriad elements taking place behind the central riff ensure that this is more than just an empty adrenalin blast and that you’ll keep coming back to try to unravel more of this album’s many mysteries. ‘For he that wavereth’ is up next and it’s a simple, beautiful piece of work, more akin to the tracks found on ‘Heliocentric’, that paves the way for the explosive bombast of ‘the grand inquisitor II, roots and locusts’ which sees nimble-fingered-guitar taking on jazzy-time-signature-drums in the complexity stakes although, as before, the song is always more important than technicality and The Ocean never let things get so overly technical they forget the power of a simple melody or hulking riff. The final track on side B is the third and final part of the grand Inquisitor trilogy – ‘the grand inquisitor III, a tiny grain of faith’ which sees the band wrap up the sequence of songs inspired by in Fjodor Dostoyevsky’s novel ‘The Brothers Karamasov’ with a gentle, yet still menacing, ambient section that stands utterly at odds with, yet compliments perfectly, the previous tracks heavy guitars and wanton screams. It’s a massive creative leap, not unlike that undertaken by Ulver in their later albums, and it’s a wondrous thing to behold.
The final side opens with a track that sits somewhere between ‘Blood mountain’-era Mastadon and Opeth in the ferocity stakes. Named ‘Sewers of the soul’ the rolling drum assault is like being caught in the oncoming rumble of a Panzer assault while the mighty guitar riff is astonishingly brutal, yet offset with some fret-board troubling solos. ‘Wille Zum Untergang’, however, is another beautiful track that once again sets its sights towards Ulver’s pastoral ambience (crossed with a hint of Mogwai’s guitar-blizzard approach) rather than unerring brutality, while the absence of vocals concentrates the listener on the excellent guitar work. A delicate track, the dichotomy between this and the previous, feral blast perfectly encapsulates the broad appeal of this astonishing band. ‘Heaven TV’ makes up for this brief excursion into melodic territory by kicking you straight in the head with a screamed vocal dragging you straight back into The Ocean’s more traditional Botch-esque aural nightmare. It’s possibly the most hardcore-orientated of the tracks here and although the chorus sees the band head in a more melodic tangent, the verse is a straightforward, none-more-brutal blast of punky thuggishness designed to slash and burn everything in its path, although this being The Ocean it’s never quite that straight forward and myriad deviations and diversions see the track merge without warning into the beautiful melodic passages haunted by cello and the clean vocals of final track ‘the almightiness contradiction’ which sees this ambitious set close on a reflective note.
Overall
When you’re faced with a work of this scope it’s impossible to pass a simple judgement after only one listen. It’s taken multiple attempts to write this review in a manner which is duly respectful to the almighty effort that has gone into producing this astonishing work of art and to say that this rises to the challenge of its weighty subject matter is recommendation enough. This is not an album that will appeal simply to metal fans or progressive fans, rather it is an almighty body of work which, although it contains astonishingly heavy passages, has enough depth and scope to make it of interest to any fan of adventurous music be they interested in jazz, metal, hard rock or whatever. The lyrical concept is treated with an intelligence and sensitivity that rarely dips below a literary level and although much of it is rendered unintelligible in the heavier passages the lyrics are available on all formats as a handy guide to what you’re missing along with various quotes to help develop the message the band aim to get across.
With so much effort put into the presentation of the album it’d be foolish indeed to consider downloading this and while we heartily recommend the vinyl, we appreciate that many of our readers don’t have a turntable as, apparently, do the band as they have lavished the same care and attention on the CD package which is also available in box set form and with similar embellishments. This is a masterpiece that is a must for any serious fan of music and the depth and intelligence evident in the lyrics and compositions guarantees you’ll still be finding hidden meaning and sounds in the album long after the first astonishing listen. Absolutely stunning.
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