The Ocean: The Phanerozoic Chapter
THE OCEAN require very little introduction and after paving their own uncompromising path for over 20 years have nothing left to prove but the German outfit continue to show us what a formidable force they are with each passing release. Paleozoic, the first instalment of the Phanerozoic chapter was released in 2018 and this year will see the culmination of this stage of their journey with the release of Mesozoic | Cenozoic. A release which will be a continuation but will also head in a different direction to its predecessor.
“It was clear to us from the beginning that these two records would and should be different,” explains founding member and guitarist Robin Staps. “The first part has this very consistent, coherent vibe from the beginning to the end with similar tempo’s in the songs and I knew when I was writing all the material I always knew which songs would end up on that part. The second part was a lot more ambiguous for me to imagine how all that material would become a record. There are a lot more experimental tracks covering a wide range of different styles but in the end it all just kind of fell into place and worked out wonderfully.”
This release wasn’t just an experimental approach with regards to the writing of the songs but it was also a different approach to the way the overall product was brought together. “For all of the previous records we’ve always had a master plan so everything was kind of clear by the time we entered the studio,” discusses Robin. “This time the song order wasn’t even decided until we mixed the record so it was a different experience of making a record in a way but that’s what keeps it interesting. This is our ninth record so we don’t want to repeat ourselves and just rely on the formula we have developed. It’s good sometimes to take a different approach and that worked out really well here.”
THE OCEAN have always devised fascinating concepts and themes to add an extra dimension to their already impressive compositional talents. Focusing predominantly on the various geological periods for the majority of their releases has offered up a lot of interesting subject matter and is a topic that has always been close to Robin‘s heart. “I’ve had an interest in geology and geography ever since I was a teenager and I now have a masters in philosophy and geography. The decision to combine this interest with my music was during the Precambrian release in 2007 and when I wrote that record I tried to visualise the music I was writing at the time. I always ended up with these prehistoric landscapes and visions of lava streams, outbreaking volcanoes and things like that and it felt like an adequate representation of the music. It kind of made sense to connect the two realms with what I was doing during my studies.”
With touring and musical performances grinding to a sudden halt THE OCEAN found themselves with an abundance of time at their disposal and with this opportunity they have endeavoured to make this impending release as exciting and unique as possible with regards to the overall package. The limited edition release features an extensive photobook detailing their touring throughout 2019 as well as the inclusion of a collection of pre-historic authentic fossils. “I really enjoyed working on that. Actually all credit goes to my father,” admits Robin. “When he asked me what our next record was going to be about he was like ‘you should throw some fossils in!’ and at first I just kind of laughed but after thinking about it, it was actually a really cool idea. I started looking into how I would go about sourcing fossils in the amounts that we needed and that was quite difficult as there was 1,000 box sets to be made and we wanted to include one from each era of the Phanreozoic Eon, so the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic and the Cenozoic era’s and this nice lady from a geological institute in Munich who was really into the project helped us source them all. Since they are not things we can just create and they had to be found it turned out to be quite tricky but the idea was really well received and a nice treat for the fans. We have this really nice following of very loyal fans who buy everything from us and have supported us over the years and they are the people who make these projects possible as they can be quite expensive.”
As well as being the creative force behind THE OCEAN, Robin is also one of the masterminds behind Pelagic Records. A venture which was initially established as a means to be able to re-release previous releases from THE OCEAN. Over the years it has turned out to be quite the successful endeavour. “It’s taken over my life really!” Jokes Robin. “That was never the plan, initially it was just about releasing old records but I came across a couple of bands here and there that I found interesting and I wanted to help out. Now it’s a full time job really with four employees. It’s just growing really quickly and that makes me very happy because I love to work. I’ve always enjoyed music, not only from the angle of playing guitar in a band but also from the management and marketing promotion angle and all the other things that are also important for that to help them grow. I’m surprised to see how quickly the label grew over the last couple of years and now we’re at a stage where we really have to decide what we can release because we can’t release more than two records per month as that would harm our own releases and our schedule is already full, well into 2021. So there’s a lot coming up, but it’s very exciting.”
Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic is out now via Metal Blade Records/Pelagic Records.
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