SATURDAY SONG TO GET STONED [AND FIGHT GERMAN METALHEADS] TO: THE OCEAN – “KILLING THE FLIES”
This “collective” from Berlin is brutal and smart — like every German girlfriend I’ve ever had; but the band seems pretty passionate as well (unlike every…well, you know).
Since its inception in 2000, The Ocean has had a huge amount of revolving-door musician coming-and-goings, ranging from the original instrumental sound to a two-singer approach to a multiple singer frenzy (the album this song appears on, Aeolian, credits 7 vocalists in the liner notes for different elements such as “meaty howls”, “deep bellowing”, “raucous vociferation”, and “sappy squalling”, and currently 11 vocalists are listed on the band’s MySpace page, including Caleb Scofield from Cave In), although it never seems like more than one person is singing at once (unlike MetalSucks’ perpetual wet dream Sikth).
I went looking in the record shoppe (yes, occasionally I pay for music) for The Ocean’s recent release, Precambrian, which seems to have a more evolved sound according to the couple tracks I listened to on their MySpace/website, but could only find their previous release instead. Originally conceived (and recorded) as the heavy disc for a loud/atmospheric 2-cd set, Aeolian eventually found its way to light in 2005 (the softer recordings were released as Fluxion a year earlier) when the band signed to Metal Blade Records, label to As I Lay Dying, The Black Dahlia Murder, The Red Chord, Manowar, and yes, even Gwar.
There is a slight Unearth (also on Metal Blade) sound to the beginning of this track, but there is also a more fluid and mature progressive undertone to the riffage, as well as various shifting moods — seemingly a precursor to the band’s current refined sound.
More to come on these guys as I fall deeper in love with the sound…
THE OCEAN – “Kill the Flies”, from Aeolian (2004)
-KW
