The Ocean Collective - Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic (2020) {Deluxe Edition}

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The Ocean Collective - Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic (2020) {Deluxe Edition}

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In 2018, European progressive extreme music outfit the Ocean Collective released Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic, the first half of a sprawling concept offering based on paleontology. Its companion, Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic, closes the evolutionary cycle that spans all periods during the Phanerozoic Eon. The first album documented the Cambrian explosion that ended with the pre-Triassic extinction event. This chronological sequel begins at the dawn of the dinosaurs, then continues in the present epoch. Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic garnered acclaim for its relentless heaviness and straightforward musical progression. Phanerozoic II is far more experimental and eclectic. Its sounds, words, and atmospheres are pursued in ever-expanding circles, employing varied tempos, abundant electronic textures, melodic compositional frames, and selective orchestration to create something that borders on the exotic, yet remains heavy as hell.

In "Triassic," guitarist Robin Staps and bassist Mattias Hägerstrand pursue a modal Eastern motif. Paul Seidel's drums enter with almost tribal insistency (and are appended by staggered loops). At three minutes in, pulsing sequencers collide with the guitars in a savage sludge metal explosion as Loïc Rossetti goes full roar up top. The full picture of the Ocean's musical expanse is showcased on the suite-like, 13-minute "Jurassic | Cretaceous," which features a return vocal appearance from Katatonia's Jonas Renkse. Amid blaring orchestral brass and Baroque-styled piano from Peter Voigtmann are punishing chugs from guitarists Staps and David Åhfeldt. The song's transcendental musicality underscores a harrowing lyrical observation. Its cautionary chorus compares the planetary event that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs to the fragility of human civilization amid climate change by directly referencing related philosophical questions posed in director Lars Von Trier's apocalyptic film Melancholia. The dynamic range is kaleidoscopic, melding fury, bewilderment, and sorrowful beauty. Singer Tomas Liljedahl (Breach) guests on "Palaeocene," a crunchy, menacing, in-your-face narrative that covers some ten million years of prehistory! On "Eocene," Rossetti's clean vocals channel early alt-rock, while the instrumental chart borrows from both King Crimson and the Flower Kings. The cinematic instrumental "Oligocene" offers organic drums atop treated, electronic beats, gated synths, and majestic, ringing guitars – it doesn't remotely sound like the Ocean, but it works as a bridge between the album's thematic halves. The sonic ground for "Miocene | Pliocene" shifts again as Rossetti screams during the slow-burning verses before singing cleanly in the harmonically resplendent chorus. Closer "Holocene" is introduced by brutal Gojira-esque electronics before a moody, wrangling post-punk bass hook is fitted into a layered Middle Eastern guitar motif. Rossetti delivers languidly as a cello and piano waft in atop guitars. They generate an ever-growing tension that never resolves. Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic arrives during the Ocean's 20th anniversary. Labyrinthine in construction, this vastly experimental yet deeply satisfying, and even visionary, set demands much from listeners. The ever-restless the Ocean pull it off with requisite good taste, judicious, disciplined musicality, and even a prophetic warning in an evolutionary allegory about the very survival of the human species.

~ Thom Jurek, All Music