German atmospheric sludge/post-metal collective The Ocean share live video for »Silurian: Age Of Sea Scorpions«

Photo by Jaqueline Vanek

German atmospheric sludge/post-metal collective The Ocean share live video for the track »Silurian: Age Of Sea Scorpions«, recorded at Motocultor 2022 in Bretagne, France.

Courtesy of Metal Blade Records:

The Ocean have released a full 60 minutes live set, recorded at Motocultor Festival in August 2022. The captivating multi-camera shoot realized by French production company ThePit.com shows the Berlin-based band at the top of their game, playing through material off their albums »Phanerozoic I and II« as well as »Pelagial«. Watch the full set or check out the song »Silurian: Age Of Sea Scorpions«.

Full concert:
the-pit.com/content/the-ocean-motocultor-festival-2022-74750

After 5 years of touring on »Pelagial«, The Ocean started recording their 8th studio album in February 2018, split into two volumes to be separately released in 2018 and 2020 respectively, titled »Phanerozoic«. The Phanerozoic eon succeeded the Precambrian supereon, spanning a 500 million-year period leading to the present day, and it has witnessed the evolution and diversification of plant and animal life on Earth, and the partial destruction of it during 5 mass extinction events. Conceptually and musically, The Ocean’s »Phanerozoic« is the missing link between the albums »Precambrian« and »Heliocentric / Anthropocentric«.

Guitarist and primary songwriter Robin Staps penned »Phanerozoic« as he did its predecessors, in seclusion in a house by the ocean. The first volume of the double album »Phanerozoic« is made up of bleak and heavy songs, boiled down to the essential core of the musical ideas driving them. With analog synths merging with the heavy guitars, the addition of Peter Voigtmann to the band’s ranks has made a marked difference. After years of handling the spectacular lighting design at The Ocean’s live shows, essentially “playing drums on the lighting console every night” as Staps puts it, he now brings a bevy of angry, dystopian sounds to the songs. »Phanerozoic« also marks the recording debut of bassist Mattias Hägerstrand and drummer Paul Seidel, who both bring their own style and approach to their respective instruments.

Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well