If there’s anything to be learned from The Ocean’s 23 years as a band, it’s that they are certainly not afraid of an ambitious project. From the very beginning of their career with 2004’s debut album Fluxion, the German post metal group have created volume after volume of progressive, intricate, and atmospheric wonder while evolving with each step along the way.
The inclusion of synthesisers is not a recent addition to the sonic landscape of The Ocean, they have certainly become more and more prominent in recent years. Where the magic of Peter Voigtmann’s synths operated as a crucial yet supporting texture on Phanerozoic I & II, they are front in centre on The Ocean’s latest album Holocene. An album that sees the bands signature guitars take a backseat as the supporting texture while the synths lead the compositions and production gloriously.
Holocene almost feels like the perfect companion record to the preceding Phanerozoic albums. Where the latter was full to the brim with gritty guitars, pummelling drums and other aggressive tendencies, the former sees the band shift gears and present a very different kind of tension, spearheaded by Voigtmann’s moody synthesisers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spaYcNCuHqQ
Speaking with founding member and guitarist Robin Staps, it’s clear that Holocene is a direct reflection of Voigtmann finding his place in the band.
“I think it was a consequence of a few things happening like Peter finding his space within our ranks. When he joined the band in 2018, he was still rather shy as a person and as a musician. In the beginning On Phanerozoic I, he was just doubling a lot of the guitars with Moogs and now it’s gone a lot further than that. It’s no longer just adding something to the guitars, it’s the key instrument where these tracks were initially composed.
All of the tracks originated from him sending me synth parts that I added guitars to and fleshed out the arrangements. It wasn’t even really planned for, he just started sending me ideas. I wasn’t even sure it was going to be Ocean material in the first place when he sent it, but I liked it and wanted to do something with it. We were bouncing ideas back and forth for a while and by the end of that process, we had the album done and it became very clear that it was absolutely Ocean album.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek0UDtV2KO8
It would be easy to conclude that an album that replaces distorted guitars and ferocious vocals with modular synths and eerie vocal crooning would be an easy listen. However, Holocene might be lighter than what you’ve learnt to expert from The Ocean, but it is in no way less impactful or tense. Robin notes that focusing on a different kind of tension allowed the band to create some of the most impactful moments in their catalogue.
“The focus on the synths makes people think that it’s not a heavy record, which I believe is not the case. It’s just that the heavy moments are a bit more sparsely used but that makes them more impactful when they do come in. There are some incredibly heavy moments like the end of ‘Subatlantic’ and the end of ‘Unconformities’, that are almost going back to Aeolian days of The Ocean.
It's not just like a synth pop record. The synths are very dominant but they’re also fulfilling a role in the big picture, and that big picture very much still includes distorted guitars and heavy drumming.”
Like so many bands, The Ocean released an album (Phanerozoic II) in 2020 while the world was deep in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This meant that the band wasn’t able to tour on the back of the album for almost two years as the live music industry slowly clawed itself back into action. The band finally returned to the stage in early 2022, which allowed them to debut Phanerozoic II material in a live setting for the first time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6hRFcVZFlA
Even with social media allowing artists and fans to be connected like never before, being locked up at home for years certainly makes it hard to get a barometer on how your fans are connecting with new material. Robin speaks to how powerful it was to finally see fans around the world connect with the new material.
“It felt immensely liberating and we didn’t realise that the album meant so much to so many people. We released the album at a time where we couldn’t tour, so we were prepared for the first time where people weren’t too familiar with the material yet but it was actually the opposite. Everybody knew the lyrics and everybody was singing along. We were so overwhelmed by that and we didn’t see it coming because of the weird circumstances of the release.
We did 150 shows in 2022 and it’s been a super intense 12 months for us. The magic of playing these songs live finally was what gave us the power to do that so intensely. You usually get tired and bored after a while, but we didn’t get to that point until the very end of the last tour. It was awesome and truly gave us drive to propel through the rest of the year.”
Interview by Nicholas Simonsen @blackechomusic
Holocene is out now via Metal Blade Records/Pelagic Records. Grab your copy here.
Holocene Tracklisting
1. Preboreal
2. Boreal
3. Sea of Reeds
4. Atlantic
5. Subboreal
6. Unconformities
7. Parabiosis
8. Subatlantic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUQX35trjwk&feature=youtu.be
