Dual Review: The Ocean - Heliocentric and Anthropocentric

Genre: Sludge Metal, Post-Metal
Name: The Ocean
Album: Heliocentric & Anthropocentric, 2010
Look what's evolved from the primordial Sludge...

UPDATE: now includes instrumental versions

I remember the day rather clearly. I was striding through the now-closed record store, tall, educated, aloof, and weighed down by my younger brother was far more interested in Beiber and Akon than Slayer or Ahab. He was tired, bored, and irritated, so I had to choose my CDs more hurriedly than usual. In a fit of annoyance, he handed me one and said "Get this one. The cover spins." That was all I needed - both I, and, shortly enough, the CD were sold. That CD was Heliocentric, and it was my first encounter with The Ocean Collective, and I have never looked back.

Heliocentric is the first of 2 albums designed to "critique" Christianity, and is focused primarily on the history of the Catholic church and its sins, cataloguing the deaths of "heretics", amongst other things; however, they clearly didn't think people would realise this, and had to put in a disclaimer:

"FIRMAMENT contains words adapted from the King James Bible, Genesis 1:6-20. THE FIRST COMMANDMENT OF THE LUMINARIES contains words adapted from I Enoch 72:2-5. No, this does not mean that we are believers, trying to convert you to join the Church of the Hangman..."

Musically, it is quite diverse, ranging from the coarse and heavy tracks such as "Metaphysics of the Hangman" to elegant, jazzy piano pieces like "Epiphany", combined with a full string quartet, saxaphones, trumpets and trombones and even a vibraphone. Vocally, too, it is excellent, with screams offset by elegant and quiet singing, with well-written, albeit misleading lyrics.

Anthropocentric was, therefore, always going to have a tough act to follow. Focused more on theological problems, it emerged a far heavier, and less diverse album, with the brass instruments removed, and the strings now reduced to the three musketeers, rather than the four seasons. However, although it was an album based almost entirely on raging aural infernos, when it finally decided to allow us a breath of air, "Wille Zum Untergang" was a reflection of perfection: a slow build, steadily increasing as the guitars danced elegantly around each other, and the snare work became slowly more complex - it was magnificent, the epitome of post-metal, the perfect yin to the yang of "She Was The Universe" and other crushing tracks.

The vocals tended more towards screaming in this album, but had a great lyrical range, drawing from sources such as Lord Byron, Friedrich Nietzche (how could they not, given the subject matter?) and Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. However, if you will excuse a brief theological aside, they hardly stand up to close scrutiny. Take, for example, the song "Heaven TV", which claims that heaven will be an empty white sphere, and then uses that idea to attack Christianity. There is no basis for that at all: indeed, the bible describes heaven as not a sphere but a city, and a square one at that. Elsewhere, Staps relies on tricks of the tongue to score cheap points. Whilst none of this detracts from the music, it does leave a somewhat bitter aftertaste, knowing that the lyrics are flawed.

However, one does not buy CDs to be educated on the meaning of life - except, perhaps, for self-help audiobooks. Musically, these CDs are amazing, far greater than I had expected or even dreamed when I picked the first one up that day. The perfect balance of heavy sludge and light, introspective guitar, this is what post-metal should be, and I recommend it most highly.

Summary: Excellent, anti-Catholic post-metal, with great range.

Lyrical Themes: Theology, history of the Catholic church

Rating: 9/10 - Recommended

Track listing:

Heliocentric
1. Shamayim
2. Firmament
3. The First Commandment Of The Luminaries
4. Ptolemy Was Wrong
5. Metaphysics Of The Hangman
6. Catharsis Of A Heretic
7. Swallowed By The Earth
8. Epiphany
9. The Origin Of Species
10. The Origin Of God

Anthropocentric
1. Antropocentric
2. The Grand Inquisitor I: Karamazov Baseness
3. She Was The Universe
4. For He That Wavereth...
5. The Grand Inquisitor II: Roots & Locusts
6. The Grand Inquisitor III: A Tiny Grain Of Faith
7. Sewers Of The Soul
8. Wille Zum Untergang
9. Heaven TV
10. The Almightiness Contradiction

Download Heliocentric
Download Anthropocentric
Download Heliocentral
Download Anthropocentral

Evinta - My Dying Bride

Genre: Doom Metal, Ambient
Name: My Dying Bride
Album: Evinta, 2011

...Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me
That with music loud and long...

Evinta. A project almost 15 years in the making. An idea that has sat smoldering and never really had a reason to burn alive until now. 9 albums worth of darkness recreated anew to mark 20 years of MDB. Music arranged to the soundscapes of sorrows past. Finally the 20th anniversary allows us to release this music in a form it has been desperately, woefully waiting for.

Enjoy the Darkness.

My Dying Bride have long been one of my favourite metal bands, for one very simple reason. It is not because of Stainthorpe's vocal work, although that is excellent, both musically and lyrically. It is not because of the emotions invested in their songs, although they are there in abundance. It is not because of the heaviness of their music - there are far heavier bands out there, more angry and anarchistic. Rather, it is for the simple reason that they are magnificently melodic songwriters. They can use duel guitars and a violin or keys to make exquisite harmonies, where other bands fall by the wayside. The multiple voices come together to create beautiful music, which no other band seems to do anywhere quite as well. It is for this reason that when My Dying Bride elect to do songs without traditional metal instruments, as found in Sear Me and For My Fallen Angel, they don't just get away with it - they excel in it, masters of melody and elegance combined.

Thus, it was not with holy dread and closed eyes that I awaited this unusual opus from the honeydew-fed, milk-of-paradise-supping Doom lords; I waited with anticipation and excitement, gathered together my pittances and sent a rather large check to Peaceville as soon as they were open for business. And I was not disappointed. Evinta is a work of art, a magnificent, magical amalgamation of movements, melodies, music.

Certainly, this is not a typical My Dying Bride release. Glencross and Craighan's guitars are absent, Abé no longer plucks at her bass and Mullins is no longer atop his throne. In their place, we find Alice Pembroke playing a viola, beside Johan Baum's cello, and Jonny Maudling, famed for his work with Bal-Sagoth on piano, keyboards and samples. As you can see, this was not going to be a standard album - but then, it was never intended to be. It was something new and exciting, and, if that is what you were expecting, then it's just shy of perfect. However, do not expect anything heavy, anything metal. Instead, head in with an open mind, and embrace what you find.

Evinta is a mixture of all of My Dying Bride's old songs, riffs and themes, melded together with classical instruments, melted down and reforged into something entirely new. For example, in The Burning Coast of Regnum Italium, you can hear the piano carrying the melody once found in the intro to The Dreadful Hours, possibly the single most beautiful piece of music of all time. In Of Lilies Bent With Tears is found sections of Two Winters Only. I won't give any other "spoilers" - part of the fun of this album is the game of "Name the Tune" that can be played with it - but these are merely some examples of what can be expected in the work. After all, it is the manifestation of all My Dying Bride's work - "evinta" is the feminine perfect participle of "evincere", to evince or show clearly. It is a display of all the band has achieved in the past 20 years, and a beacon for the future, hope for all the music with which they have yet to capture our ears.

This work is, in a nutshell, comparable to Elend - strings are the dominant voice, and speed is most definitely not of the essence (there are certain songs that are minimalist almost to the point of a drone-esque sound). However, there are important differences to that band. Whereas Elend favour screeching, disharmonious violins, My Dying Bride have gone far more in the direction of mellifluous melody and harmonies which hang from each other like icicles on pine branches. I have even managed to convince various people that this is, in fact, genuinely Classical music, age-old and well-beloved.

However, one could not have a My Dying Bride release without Stainthorpe's unique vocal work, and here, in Evinta, he comes up trumps, with new lyric genius sewn into the fabric of the album. Incontrovertibly, my favourite track on the album is In Your Dark Pavilion, which finishes with some of the best singing I've ever heard:

"I dream of being
Beside her
As I move
Through this water
Step over here
You Devil
Her earth looks like
My dying skin"

Stainthorpe's tortured voice dances so elegantly with the piano that the angels themselves would weep. And this is far from unique - the singing found in The Music Of Flesh is magnificent, and the lyrics of And All Their Joy Was Drowned are poetic brilliance.

However, Stainthorpe is not alone. The soprano Lucie Roche also takes to the stage, singing in English, French and Latin magnificently. The best example of her melodic voice can be found in Vanité Triomphante, the promo track released by Peaceville in edited form, which can be found here, in exchange for your email address, but is also included below.

In conclusion, therefore, I could not recommend this stellar work more highly. Certainly, it is not for the run-of-the-mill brutal death metal fan, who thinks that speed and skill equate to each other - but then, if you're reading this blog, you're probably not a run-of-the-mill metalhead. It's a elegant, resplendent work, shining in majesty and, I'll admit, just a hint of vanity, but rightly so - no other band could pull this off. Even Dream Theater have tempered their orchestral works with heavier tracks.

Summary: Magnificent orchestral doom, perfect for My Dying Bride fans and musical kalophiles of all kinds.
Lyrical Themes: Still analysing, but typical of My Dying Bride's work - melancholy and dejected, but beautiful
Rating: 10/10
Track listing:

Disc 1
1 - In Your Dark Pavilion
2 - You Are Not The One Who Loves Me
3 - Of Lilies Bent With Tears
4 - The Distance, Busy With Shadows
5 - Of Sorry Eyes In March

Disc 2
1 - Vanité Triomphante
2 - That Dress And Summer Skin
3 - And Then You Go
4 - A Hand Of Awful Rewards

Disc 3 (Collectors' Edition: What I do for you people...)
1 - The Music Of Flesh
2 - Seven Times She Wept
3 - The Burning Coast Of Regnum Italicum
4 - She Heard My Body Dying
5 - And All Their Joy Was Drowned

Download

I'd recommend getting your hands on one of the deluxe copies if you can - they come in great packaging, with excellent production value, and paragraphs on each of My Dying Bride's albums.