OCEAN COLLECTIVE, (The) Phanerozoic II Liquid Amber Vinyl LP (2020)

Geology as grief. The Ocean Collective have spent two decades building albums around deep time, extinction events, and the slow violence of planetary change, and Phanerozoic II is where that project reaches something genuinely overwhelming. Released in 2020, it picks up where the first record left off, moving through the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras with the kind of emotional weight that makes most progressive metal feel like noodling.

Berlin-based and relentlessly ambitious, The Ocean Collective operate at the intersection of atmospheric sludge, post-metal, and orchestral composition. Robin Staps has assembled a lineup that treats dynamics as architecture, and this record, with Loïc Rossetti's vocal range pushed to its limits, is the payoff for years of patience from listeners who came up through Isis, Cult of Luna, and the heavier end of the post-rock world. It belongs in any serious dark aesthetic or metal collection.

Pressed on Liquid Amber coloured 12" vinyl. Full length LP, 2020. Country of origin: Germany.

Fans of: Mastodon, Baroness, Gojira, Neurosis, Devin Townsend