This is probably one of my favorite tracks from the Ocean. Thematically and in terms of tone, it's the perfect follow up to the Permian: the Great Dying (the last track on their Palaeozoic album). Both the song and the actual Triassic period (roughly 251 to 201 million years ago) are a nice transition out of nearly absolute desolation (from the worst mass extinction event in history, with a 75% lethality on land, and 95% lethality in the sea--to the rise of giants, the dinosaurs). I love how the Ocean takes these scientific and prehistorical concepts, and almost weave their own story with them.
I honestly love the contrast between the fuzzy, heavy sections and the stripped back, often vocal and bass centric sections they do. A balance between the brutal and melodic
This band single-handedly re-ignited my evolutionary biology/ paleontology obsession from when I was young. My brother is getting me a paleobiology textbook for Christmas, and I can’t wait to learn more about the geologic time scale and compare these tracks’ themes to the themes of what was happening to the Earth at that time, so I can analyze them like you did in this comment!!
So wait, the lyrics are about the time periods as well? I vaguely remember someone saying something like that the last time I checked out The Ocean but I just realized how wild of a task that actually is to do.
@@CriticalReactions Yes, all the songs in Precambrian, Phanerozoic One, and Phanerozoic Two are named after the time periods even the albums are Precambrian is a Super Eon, containing 3 Eons called the Hadean, Archean, and Proterozoic. Phanerozoic however is just one Eon, a 4th eon, not part of the Precambrian.
I would say there is also an existential layer to these stories. It's like they are trying to put human history into perspective with regards to earths history. The most obvious example is "We are just like reptiles, giant rulers of the world. Within the blink of an eye, wiped of the face of the earth" from Jurassic | Cretaceous.
Triassic is the first track on the last The Ocean album so far. I feel it's probably the more Tool-esque song so far, many rhythmic patterns and even some melodic choices feel quite reminiscent of later-era Tool imo. The Ocean might be on the Post-Metal subgenre, but they definitely fall closer to the Prog end of it rather than the more Post-Rockish or even Sludgy end of it. Also, it's worth mentioning that for a Post-Metal band they balance lengthy tracks with more normal-length tracks (3 to 6 minute songs) quite well. They have grown into their proggy sound, and even if it's true that overall they have a softer sound moving from Heliocentric onwards, their last three albums have some of their heaviest sections so far imo. Phanerozoic II (the album this track comes from) even managed to incorporate some Black Metal influences, something quite new for the band! I'm glad you are beginning to enjoy this kind of stuff more, The Ocean might be one of the best bands to come from the Post-Metal scene. Great insight as always, Bryan!
It's always awesome to see a band evolve and grow into their own unique sound. I missed it with The Ocean but it's fun to a condensed version of that journey from a fan.
@@pascalg16 as a whole, I agree, it was mostly a comment about this song, I find it especially Tool-esque, but that might have something to do with what I tend to associate with Tool as a sound.
Phanerozoic I was mentioned to be a "lighter" album, and II to be the more harder stuff. Imo they just improved on how to balance out stuff in their songs on the last two albums, making them just a tiny bit more interesting to listen to if you're used to this type of music. maybe he will dig a little further into their catalog. The Quiet Observer, Mesopelagic or the Origin of Species & God would be songs i could totally see him enjoying every single bit of.
The Ocean just did a live playthrough of this entire album this past weekend. Its here on youtube and called 2021 Roadburn Redux. It's well worth a watch!
The Last Baron by Mastodon has insane production, layers and everything. I recommend this every week haha, but that's because it literally matches almost every theme.
They recently performed this live and in the Video it was mentioned that the lenght of their Songs or concepts represents the lenght of the Geological periods of the earth . Thats why theyre so long sometimes
I didn't realize that the song lengths were also representative! That's amazing! The Ocean never cease to amaze me when it comes to stuff like this, and just in general too
I'm so fucking excited for that. I'm going to see them in Pittsburgh in March. It'll be my second time seeing Leprous (First was in 2019 with The Dear Hunter and BTBAM) but my first for The Ocean. Both are in my top 5 favorite bands of all time so I'm stoked!
The ocean have always had moments of contrasting mellow/soft to heavy which can be heard on the first album fog diver and also certain songs on precambrian but I'd say they fully inherited it when the vocalist loic join for the album heliocentric in 2010 and have incorporated it on the 4 albums that conceded it.
Check out Hadopelagic li: Let Them Believe by The Ocean. Great song! Also get back to ISIS, Threshold Of Transformation would be a good song to review!
Love the band - if you can see them live, DO IT, they outshone Leprous last time I saw them. Bryan, if you ever get a craving to listen to them I'd recommend checking out the album Pelagial in its entirety, it's one of the best metal albums of the 2010's in my eyes.
Someone suggested this album a year ago, after multiple listens on repeat for months, I could easily say this is one of the TOP prog metal album of all time in my opinion.
Triassic. The time when life barely had just escaped death itself(The Permian). Now life was recovering in a vast aris desert, those 5% that made their way out of it. New animals were coming into tuition and stealing niches that were no longer filled with the death of most therapsids. Dinosaurs were also evolving, but they weren't the dominant species yet. That belongs to animals like the Saurisuchians. It just shows how much must die for other things to evolve
Won’t comment too much since there’s so many great comments here. Overall, highly recommend exploring The Ocean and their discography. Very varied and experimental with their sound. They’re one of my favorite bands because of that. Highly recommend listening to Pelagial all the way through. This was my first album by them. The concept is cool and their musicianship portraying their ideological concepts is amazing. Also, stoked to see them and Leprous next year! Two of my favorite bands! On another note, it’s been really cool seeing your “metal journey”! I remember post-metal being something you really struggled with. It was often boring and repetitive. For me, this is a genre I’m drawn to naturally. I love the slow movement, the hypnotic repetition, and layered wall of sounds. A genre I’ve challenged myself to listen to more (in the metal genres) is technical death metal. It was always too fast, not much emotion, and, frankly, just noise to me. After taking the year to listen to many bands from early in the genre to now, I’ve really come to appreciate it! Always love your motto “be critical, not cynical!” Thanks as always Bryan!
I'll have to dig into an album one of these days and I guess Pelagial is a good place to start. I don't know if a whole album of stuff like Triassic will keep my attention but if they're more varied than I'm expecting then I should be good.
@@CriticalReactions TBH, I got a little bored of their new album the first few listens. I think they started out pretty strong and then fizzled the back half of the album (with the exception of one song). I really dig Pelagial though!
@@CriticalReactions Pelagial is one of my favorite albums of all time, it is a concept album, with each song being about drifting into different zones of the ocean...always further down. But if you look into the lyrics, it's not only the ocean itself, "the ocean" can be applied to anything in life that you sink into - relationship, addiction, or other things! Really cool to truly analyze.
Love me some The Ocean, love to see it. If it ever fits the theme again, instrumenta stoner rockers Naxatras just released a new single 'Journey to Narahmon' and it has absolutely blown me away.
Pink floyd are always good when it comes to production but poles apart is an interesting one as there is loads of hidden stuff to listen out for like a gate shutting etc
I would definitely recommend listening to something from their double-conceptual album Heliocentric-Anthropocentric. It uses cool orchestrations and interesting vocal ideas in terms of various styles. The whole idea is crucial, though. It's philosophical and deep. If I'm to point to a single song, it would be either (1)Firmament, (2)Origin of species+Origin of God, or (3)Roots and Locusts.
The Ocean is one of those bands like Gojira that every time I hear them in isolation I really enjoy them, but whenever I dig into their albums I tend find they sound a bit samey after a while. It may also be that they write a lot of long, dense, complex songs that becomes a bit aurally exhausting over the course of an album. Still, listening to this track in isolation it is impressive, from the moody beginning to the crushingly heavy riffs to the sneakily catchy vocals and the various textures that they sneak in under and over the more overt musical elements to all the nuanced, smooth-as-butter transitions to different sections. I really have nothing negative to say about it, really, which makes me wonder if I did do another discog run for them if I'd enjoy myself more with another go-around.
That's my reaction to a lot of music in general. I've found that the albums I repeatedly come back to are filled with sonic variety. So while I can appreciate what bands like The Ocean do, I'm not sure I'd enjoy it for the full hour or however long one of their albums ends up being. I'd have to be in the right mood for that.
If you have never covered Animals As Leaders, you have to check these guys out! Absolutely stunning musicians! And they are an all instrumental group! Highly recommend a Song of theirs called Tempting Time 😄✌️
Lately, their albums really need to be listened to as a whole. They're that type of band now. Haha. Love this band though. Masterpiece after masterpiece.
Jumping in here to say thank you for your videos. Even though I know some songs, for instance this one, very well, your analyses still add other aspects to me. As others have mentioned before, the albums take you on a journey as well. Funnily enough, you now have listened to the final song off "Phanerozoic I", which was "Permian: The Great Dying", the first song from "Phanerozoic II" which is this one and the following one, "Jurassic | Cretaceous" (which was written as or meant to be two separate songs IIRC). All of these flow into each other telling the story of the Earth's eras. "Rhyacian" was originally on "Precambrian" which told the history until the Cambrian. Thematically following is, yes, "Phanerozoic I". Oh, and one hint because you were mentioning the position of the vocals within the mix. Their last three albums, "Pelagial", "Phanerozoic I" and "Phanerozoic II" also have versions of all songs without vocals. They usually give me a slightly shifted mood on the songs. Incidentally, "Pelagial" is not based on the Earth's eras but the layers of the ocean and the layers of the soul. Overall it has a much straighter progression in terms of heaviness, but gurl, do they start mellow and end crushingly oppressive. Anyway, I'm rambling. Thank you so much for letting us in on your journey discovering (mostly) metal.
Huh, I didn't really look at this track as at the journey-esque one, though I usually binge albums and they kinda meld together, so it's probably my own issue. As for the theme, I don't think you actually use the recommendations for weekly themes from comments during that theme, but I am willing to try anyway. And I will use your own words:D There was one band called Archspire, you reacted to one song of them and said that it represented "the pinnacle of production". It is a technical death metal band, if you don't remember, which takes its genre to the extreme with speeds of 300+ bpm and extremely on-point shredding on everything including vocals. You didn't like them that much the previous time, but it seems that you get more and more accustomed to extreme genres of metal, so I'd say it could be a nice week to listen to them once more. They released a new album just a month ago where they managed to find melody and new rhythmic ideas even within the genre as extreme as this. I'd say Bleed The Future or Golden Mouth of Ruin from this album would be pretty nice. Or you could check A Dark Horizontal from three years ago which many people consider to be one of their most melodic and complex song, from the looks of it.
He usually pulls from his patreon where they vote for the weekly theme and then the songs that were suggested for them. Sometimes they miss the mark and sometimes they don’t. For me, what I enjoy about Bryan and his channel so that he doesn’t always pick the “normal” reviewer songs- although I’d say this is a more popular one in the reviewtube space. I do hope he reacts to something off the new Archspire album. I’ve challenged myself to listen to more tech-death this year because it’s not a genre I’m naturally drawn to. This album really caught my attention! Bryan has also evolved a bit from last year so I could see him somewhat enjoying Archspire now!
