Pelagial (album)
| Pelagic | ||||
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| Studio album by The Ocean | ||||
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Publication |
2013 |
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| Label (s) | Metal Blade Records | |||
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Title (number) |
11 |
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running time |
53 min 13 s |
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Robin staps |
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Studio (s) |
Bikini Test, La Chaux-de-Fonds |
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Pelagial is the sixth studio album by the German post-metal band The Ocean . It was released on April 26, 2013 via Metal Blade Records . It is a concept album about the pelagial layers of the oceans and brought the band to the chart for the first time .
Creation and concept
The guitarist and songwriter Robin Staps had been carrying around the idea of a concept album about the pelagial layers since the end of 2008 . In an interview, Staps stated that for a long time he did not know how to implement the idea. Eventually, Staps wrote a 50-minute song about a journey from sea level to the sea floor . Staps wanted to shape this journey in as many facets as possible. At the beginning of the album - on the surface of the sea - the album sounds light and light-footed, while the music at the end of the album is dark, oppressive and brutal.
While writing the album in the summer of 2011, Staps realized that the smooth progression wouldn't do the album any good. Staps told the Metal Hammer that he couldn't simply slow down the pace for 54 minutes, as many things would have become too predictable. In addition to the music, samples from U-Boot films such as Das Boot were used to give the album a claustrophobic atmosphere. Originally, Pelagial was planned as a purely instrumental album, since, according to Staps, vocals would not fit the album for musical and conceptual reasons. Singer Loïc Rossetti was initially unable to take part due to illness.
Was taken pelagic in 2012 in the studio Bikini Test in Switzerland La Chaux-de-Fonds . The individual instruments were recorded one after the other, first the drums , then the guitars and the bass. While working in the studio, the musicians came to the decision that Loïc Rossetti had to be part of the album. Since he recovered faster than expected, texts were still written and sung by Rosetti. The album was produced by Robin Staps. The mixing and mastering was done by Jens Bogren. The entire album was mixed in one piece, which, according to Staps, was an “insane idea”.
Finally the album was divided into eleven tracks. The main reason, according to Staps, was that the listener can select individual parts of the album without having to wind through long. He jokingly added that the band would receive less money from iTunes if the album had fewer than eleven tracks. Pelagial finally appeared as a double album with and without vocals.
Track list
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reception
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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Anton Kostudis from the online magazine Metal.de gave the album the highest rating with ten out of ten points, as The Ocean "once again proves that they are one of the great visionaries of the metal scene " and Pelagial is "53 minutes of outstanding music" . For Ronny Bittner from the German magazine Rock Hard , the band “implemented the concept more than appealingly” and, with Pelagial, offers “a really great piece of prog head cinema”. However, he criticized the singing, which "occasionally has a disturbing effect", for which Bittner awarded 8.5 out of ten points. According to Tom Küppers from the German magazine Metal Hammer , The Ocean show the rare feat of song-oriented complexity over the entire length of the album. He rated the album five out of seven. The Visions editors voted the album album of the month May 2013 with an average of 7.9 out of a possible 12 points.
Pelagial made it into the charts as the first album in the band's history and reached number 68 in the German album charts . The Loudwire Music Awards 2013 was the pelagic zone in the category Best Metal Album nominated, but the award went to Bring Me the Horizon for album Sempiternal .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Marcel Rudoletzky: Deep Sea Diver . In: Metal Hammer , June 2013, page 46
- ↑ a b Andrew Bansal: The Ocean Guitarist Robin Staps Delves Deep Into 'Pelagial'. Metal Assault, accessed May 19, 2013 .
- ↑ The Ocean - Longplay Chart Tracking. (No longer available online.) Musicline.de , archived from the original on November 27, 2015 ; Retrieved May 19, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Anton Kostudis: The Ocean - Pelagial. Metal.de, accessed on May 19, 2013 .
- ^ Ronny Bittner: The Ocean - Pelagial . In: Rock Hard , May 2013, p. 102
- ↑ Tom Küppers: The Ocean - Pelagial . In: Metal Hammer , May 2013, page 94
- ↑ Visions 242 p. 98
- ^ Graham Hartmann: 3rd Annual Loudwire Music Awards: Winners List. Loudwire , accessed December 24, 2017 .
