Album Review: The Ocean-Pelagial

European prog/sludge metal act The Ocean have always had a flair for creating an immense atmosphere with their music. Though they've created many memorable musical landscapes with their previous material, but none are more striking or memorable than the ones on their latest record Pelagial, which is undoubtedly their finest work to-date.

Like the rest of The Ocean's music, Pelagial is a concept album about the different layers of the ocean. The music is meant to reflect these different layers starting with a soft, piano-driven intro ("Epipelagic") to represent the surface, the middle of the record representing the chaos and eventual calming of the mid-layers and finishing with a gloomy, heavy track to represent the ocean floor ("Benthic: The Origin of Our Wishes".)It's an ultra-complex, behemoth of a concept, but The Ocean pulls it off. This record was originally supposed to be instrumental (the strictly instrumental version is the second disc of the album) which means The Ocean put more of a focus on complexity and experimentation in the music and the results are simply stunning. The Ocean have always had a lot of wide-ranging influences and layers to their music, but they've never created music that use these elements more chaotically or brilliantly than on Pelagial. The frequent tonal shifts this record has could've been jarring going from a soothing orchestral piece to an incredibly heavy sludge section on a whim, but none of it sounds forced or inorganic in the slightest. The Ocean are just fantastic songwriters and everything flows together incredibly well making for a truly special listening experience.

Though there are many different genres and tempo-changes on this record, I have to say that the sludge elements standout above the rest. The riffs are absolutely monstrous throughout the record. I'm an absolute sucker for a good sludge riff and Pelagial has an abundance of them. The Bathyalpelagic trilogy ("Impasses", "The Wish in Dreams", "Disequilibriated") had my jaw on the floor. The riff work is amazing and I was shocked at how heavy some of the portions were. Don't get me wrong, The Ocean have never strayed from having heavy sections in their music, but they've never had anything as skull-crushing as the Bathyalpelagic trilogy in the past.

The record also makes for the best vocal performance from Loic Rossetti to-date. Rossetti had been battling a slew of health problems during the initial writing process of this record (hence why the album was originally supposed to be instrumental), but he clearly recovered for the recording process and he returned to the band with a vengeance. His clean vocals are more crisp and emotional while his screams have a lot more power than before. Overall Rossetti has improved substantially as a vocalist from Helio/Anthropocentric and his work here elevates the immense musical landscape the rest of the band provided in his absence.

Pelagial is a damn near close to perfect album. This is basically a prog/sludge metal fans' wet dream: There's heavy riffs galore, plenty of beautiful, subtle progressive passages, brilliant musicianship across the board and a spectacular vocal performance from Loic Rossetti. The concept of this record lets The Ocean run wild with all of their influences being prominently featured on the record, which provides the listener with constant excitement as the various twists and turns all the songs have play out. The Ocean's are Europe's resident metal mad-scientists and Pelagial is their finest experiment thus far.

4.5/5 Stars
Standout Tracks
1.Bathyalpelagic III: Disequilibriated
2.Bathyalpelagic I: Impasses
3.Bathyalpelagic II: The Wish in Dreams