The Ocean Collective: Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic
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The Ocean Collective: Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic

The Ocean Collective – or as most of us just call them, The Ocean – don’t hold back when it comes to trying new things and exploring how far the boundaries go, that’s for sure. They have always been for me, a band I can turn to when I want to go on an aural journey. Their music is soothing, articulate, crushingly heavy at times and melodically beautiful in others.
Their latest release ‘Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic’, is the first half of a two part album they plan to release over a few years. This release is made up of everything you could want and expect from the band. Huge production, walls of guitars, intricate compositions, expressive vocals and progressive genius.
The theme of this album again follows the geological and historical concept that they have been renowned for covering in amazing depth over their past seven albums, and this may be the biggest epic of all before it. ‘Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic’ is the missing link between the albums ‘Precambrian’ and ‘Heliocentric’ along with ‘Anthropocentric’..
This is a solid epic, and on first listen I would say that it is the strongest and most engaging album The Ocean have put together to date. After the first listen there was only one thing I was left thinking which was that I wanted to hear the second part now. It truly finishes up in a manner that feels like an episode of a TV show that is ‘to be continued’ and that is a good way to build excitement for the next release, due in 2020.
4.5/5
Wild Thing Records
Reviewed by Chris McEwin