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THE ARCHIVES
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Morrigan's Pit has closed down as of November 2006. The site and its articles will stay online as an archive until September at least, but probably longer.
The Archives
2002-2006
» CD REVIEWS
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THE OCEAN
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Nils Lindenhayn & Robin Staps
November 2005
http://www.theoceancollective.com
The Ocean is a pretty unique band. The music from these guys from Berlin is so diverse and experimental, as well as psychedelic, technical and heavy, not to mention brutal... you'll have to listen for yourself! On the new album "Aeolian" they've used 6 aggressive voices and their shows are like David Lynch movies... who wouldn't want to learn more about this interesting and artistic bunch? Guitarist and main man Robin Staps and Nils Lindenhayn, who is in charge of the band's visuals on stage, extensively answered my questions. Read for yourself...
Congratulations on a very diverse and intense album, how have the reactions been so far?
Nils: Very diverse and intense. Some people felt let down, saying that we've turned into a mere metal band - as if metal was a band thing. These people are the ones that loved "Fogdiver" for its artsy-fartsyness, had their problems with "Fluxion" because of the vocals and now think that, with "Aeolian", we've completely said goodbye to what we once represented. What they don't get is the experimental character of "Aeolian" and the fact that it just represents - and emphasizes - one side of our sound that's always been there. The brutal one.
On the other side (which is the vast majority), the reactions ranged from "positively surprised" to "totally overwhelmed". In most reviews, the album got 80% of the points or even more. We even managed to surprise those people who loved "Fluxion" by delivering something that exceeded their expectations. They had their doubts we'd be able to come with something even better. But we did...
I'm not familiar with your older material, how would you say does "Aeolian" compare to it? Did you have a different approach than with the other recordings (like in writing, or recording)?
Nils: No, not at all. As a matter of fact, the two albums were recorded in the same session. Some songs on "Aeolian" are actually older than our first album "Fogdiver". So, regarding the songwriting, there isn't that much of a difference between the two records - and even stylistically, they're much more similar than it might seem. A song like "Dead On The Whole" or "My Principle of Charity" off "Fluxion" could have just as well been on "Aeolian", and a song like "Inertia" or "Necrobabes.com" off "Aeolian" could have just as well been on "Fluxion". What is true is that "Aeolian" comprises the more heavy and the less orchestral tunes, and that was a conscious choice. "Aeolian" is a brutal fucking bastard of a record: there are no embellishments, fewer calm passages than in the past, there's no room to breathe for the listener, it's the full-on assault of the senses: technical yet highly emotional, empathetic yet vile.
I'm not too surprised about the diversity when I read the very diverse list of influences in your bio;) I am however surprised that the vocals aren't as diverse. I mean, there's a big range from high to low but still most of them are within the screaming/hardcorish style of vocals. How come? Is that just a matter of taste?
Robin: I guess so. We have always considered the vocals to be just another instrument. I don't need melodic hooklines and all that shit, the guitars and bass guitars already bring enough of that so I think someone actually singing melodic lines on top of our orchestrated chaos would just ruin the whole thing. We did have sung vocals on our previous record "Fluxion" in some parts, and it worked, I don't have a general dislike for sung vocals - but with "Aeolian", it would have been just too much and it would have diminished the consequence of the album. Also, there was simply no room for it. "Fluxion" had some calm moments that worked well with sung vocals. These moments are almost completely lacking on "Aeolian", it's the full-on assault...
Tomas Hallbom of Breach has been heavily involved with this album, as he sings on 5 tracks. How did you get to work with him? How did the other guest vocalists - Nate Newton, Sean Ingram, Carsten Albrecht (the same as in The Anti Doctrine?), Ercüment Kasalar - get involved?
Robin: We wanted to have a bigger variety of vocal styles on "Aeolian", and at some point we just decided to ask our favourite singers to contribute, rather than looking for "new" singers here in Berlin. It took a while until I finally managed to get in touch with Tomas Hallbom. In the end some dude at Burning Heart gave me a working email address. I approached him about singing on our record and he wanted to hear it first, so I sent him a copy of the new material and he was immediately hooked. Tomas told me how much he misses being on stage and so I said "hey dude, why don't you come down to Berlin, we'll nail down your tracks here and play a couple of shows together", and he was totally into it.
With Sean the process was similar... I really wanted to have him on the album, because to me his low-end voice always kind of represented the epitome of brutality, and I adore Coalesce, they're one of my all-time favourite bands. I was also curious to see Sean Ingram and our mainman Meta abreast, and I'll have to say that Meta's voice is even more brutal and even lower than Sean's... I knew Sean from back in the days when I was doing a fanzine. Sean recorded his vocal tracks in the US and sent them over to us last minute.
And then there's Nate from Converge... Nico was friends with him before, Nico's former band had played a few shows with Converge long time ago, so they knew each other, and when Converge played in Berlin we were hanging out with them before the show and it was kind of a spontaneous thing, we asked Nate if he wanted to do some guest-vocals, and so we took them all over to our place and layed down a few parts. Nate was really hoarse, so we couldn't use all of them, but it was great that he still wanted to do it. I love Nate's rough voice in Old Man Gloom, it's awesome.
Ercüment Kasalar sings in a German band called Tephra (www.tephra.de). They are really good. We've been knowing them for a while and played some shows together, and I really dig Ercü's voice, so I asked him if he was into doing some guest vocals on our new album. You can year Ercü on "Necrobabes.com", in the slow doom-part of "The City In The Sea" and on the opening verse in "Killing The Flies", for example.
Carsten Albrecht indeed sings in another German band called The Anti Doctrine. A friend of mine gave me a CD of his band at some show we played in the "Ruhrpott" area, and when I put on the disc later at home I was immediately reminded of old Darkane as soon as the vocals set in. So I called up that dude and asked him if he was down for doing some guest vox on our new record. Carsten is singing on "One With The Ocean", and also on "Une Saison En Enfer", although his voice sounds really different here, more in the old-school hardcore vein. He's got a good range of vocal styles.
Aeolian was recorded in Oceanland, why did you have it mastered at Tonteknik Studios in Ume·with Pelle Henricsson?
Robin: The album was actually mastered by Magnus Lindberg at Tonteknik, not by Pelle... It was always clear to us that we wouldn't master our records ourselves. Professional mastering is both affordable and inevitable. It just takes a day in the studio to do it and what makes the difference to doing it yourselves is, of course, the engineer, but more than anything, the equipment. Good mastering equipment is just sooo expensive... This time we have put so much time and energy into the production that we just really felt we want someone who has more experience with heavy music to give it the final touch. I think Magnus Lindberg is one of the best recording engineers in the world, I love the sound of the last 2 Cult Of Luna records, so it was kind of a natural thing that we approached him about mastering our new record.
You have just signed to Metal Blade, did they have much competition and why did you choose MB?
Nils: We had a few other labels in mind, we even got offered two or three deals that were pretty tempting. But in the end we turned these down and went for Metal Blade for a number of reasons. For example, we felt they appreciated our work more than all others did. Another thing was that they're not operating from a distant island or even a different continent, but from right here in Germany - which makes things much easier. They know the local market and they know the right people. They're always there for us and support us in a way that I guess no American label would. There's a whole bunch of e-mails going to and fro between MB and us every day. If there's something we want, we can just ask and they're doing their best to take care of it.
Your lyrics seem emotional and deep.. are they (often) autobiographical?
Robin: A lot of times, yes. The songs "Inertia", "Une Saison En Enfer" and "Swoon" off "Aeolian", for example. They speak about some of the most beautiful times I've had in my life. I try to go for a sort of positive approach as far as these autobiographical lyrics are concerned. Of course I also write about hard times, but the essence of these lyrics is really the struggle for passionate living, and the little tales of success in that struggle... the will to get the most out of life and to live it to the fullest while we have it. I'm not into depressed shit, it bores me stiff. Life is too fucking short for being all-depressed, although sometimes there's nothing you can do about it.
But then, there are also lyrics that are not autobiographical. I would say the major part is not. They take a more critical, analytical perspective to what the fuck is wrong with industrial technological society, as Ted Kaczinsky would say, and to why most of us are so unhappy with the lives they lead. Then, some of the lyrics are poems that we have used and custom-fit to the music. The opener "The City In The Sea", for example, is a poem by Poe. So it's very diverse.
Some years ago you transformed an old aluminum factory into Oceanland - an underground musical haven with rehearsal rooms, studios, etc. Has that been an idealistic project or does it also provide some income to the band or members?
Nils: Neither the Oceanland facility nor the band itself generate an amount of profit that would make for a living; not even for just one of us. But there is some money coming in by now. We've long passed the point where every little thing had to be financed out of our own pockets. But all the profit is invested back into the project, that is, to buy new microphones from time to time, for example, or rent a tour van that's a bit more advanced than the one we used to go on tour with three years ago. I guess it's gonna be a long way till everyone in the band can live off the cash it generates. Seriously, I don't think this is ever gonna happen. Unless we completely change our style.
Robin: I never wanted to record other bands at Oceanland, although I do get approched all the time. I simply didn't have time to do it, because I wanna focus full-time on my own music rather than record someone else's. I'm also studying, so that takes away more time. But recently I have produced a band there called The Blare. They're an up-and-coming stoner/sludge project from Hamburg. Friends of mine. I'm thinking about turning this into a professional audio studio, and I might do this at one point, but right now I need to get my studies done and push The Ocean as fas ar possible.
There is going to be a limited vinyl release with "Fluxion" and "Aeolian" in a 3LP box set: colored vinyl, a poster, exclusive artwork. You've also been involved in several 7"'s. How did this come about, are you vinyl collectors yourself?
Nils: Yes, we all love vinyl. We're not collector nerds, though. We don't buy records we're not gonna listen to. The reason we love vinyl is that it has much more of a piece of art to it, whereas a CD kind of represents a disposable culture-industrial product. Of course this difference is only made up; it's just our own perception. But it's there, to us at least. A well crafted vinyl record just feels more valuable than the CD version of the same album. Just think of all the fancy artwork things you can realize on twelve by twelve inches. It's so much bigger. And remember those 70's Led Zep, Alice Cooper etc. records? Amazing. I mean, they had like moving parts in their album artwork. Little pieces of cardboard you could pull out, fold up, turn around and so on. They made their album covers something to play with. I don't think anyone has done something like that again. Not even The Ocean. Not yet.
I was sorry to hear you had to cancel the October tour because of a family member's death (my condolences!), I hope you're all doing well again now. I see a new tour has already been scheduled in March/April?
Robin: Yeah, we'll be out for about a month starting March 15th and concluding April 18th, I think. That tour is gonna take us pretty much all over Europe except for Eastern Europe and the UK. We'll probably be playing in Holland with Textures in early April. There will be plenty of further touring in 2006 after that.
Wow, Textures is a great band! I hope I will be able to see that bill :)
Recently you did play one show in Spain, at the Articulo 20 Festival - how was it there?
Robin: It was awesome. It was the first time we got to meet UG from Throne Records, the label who released our previous album "Fluxion". We had been in touch for more than 3 years but we've never actually met in person. He brought us over there for that single gig. It was a big festival, the location was actually kind of crappy, a huge hangar with a terrible sound and no backstage area, but the show was amazing. A lot of people seemed to know us there, they didn't let us off the stage, it was amazing. And the people who organized that festival were the nicest dudes we've ever met. It was weird, flying to Spain for a single show, but it was all perfectly organized and a very positive overall experience.
Is there anything left you'd like our reader to know?
Nils: Yes, I'd like all you guys to know that, to quote one of our all-time favorite metal bands, the Fucking Champs, The Ocean's "solitary aim is to destroy weak music and its purveyors by at once rejecting and exalting the tenets of the classic rock idiom. Also by killing."
LOL! Well, thanks a lot for your time, guys! Good luck with "Aeolian" and the next tour!
submitted by Marlies 30.11.2005
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