Nobody can ever accuse Berlin's THE OCEAN of lack of effort. What we have here is a double album in a package that alone is almost worth the price tag. Why? Well, apart from the concept of the album (using ages of prehistory as a metaphor for personal struggle, angst, etc.) and the classy, mostly black artwork, we have what might be the coolest-looking CD ever made - the first disc, "Hadean/Archaean", is literally a mini-CD encased in a clear, full-sized CD!

Alright, enough staring at the packaging - it's time to actually put the damn thing in the player and press play. The aforementioned "Hadean/Archaean" disc can be summed up as "the heavy one." The second the bellowing low-A punch of "Hadean" hits home, listeners will know instantly what sort of full, high-quality experience they're in for. Drummer Torge Liessmann quickly makes himself the star of these songs, with his Brann Dailor-worthy rolls and reckless thrashing through "Paleoarchaean" and "Neoarchaean". Since these guys have no full-time lead vocalist, there are a handful of screamers and singers on board including Nate Newton of CONVERGE, enriching the variety. The problem with these heavier tracks, though, is that they're a bit too simplistic, and some of the one-note riffs may conjure painful flashbacks of nu-metal

Thankfully, these guys seem to be in their true essence with the far more adventurous "Proterozoic" disc, or "the lighter one." There's a definite division of styles once the Western-sounding clean guitar plinks and intertwined sax on "Siderian/Rhyacian" kicks in. Fans of NEUROSIS and ISIS will appreciate the switch to clean vocals and, most importantly, the longer, more thought-out songs. While it'd be nice to see these guys show a bit more balance between these two styles, there are tracks like "Orosirian" and "Ectasian" which do incorporate some of the heaviness of the first disc but in a slower, controlled manner. The chimes and xylophone may be a bit cheesy, but as a whole the band's atmospheric and progressive work is what's going to win them fans.

The guys in THE OCEAN have wanted to do this double album thing for a while, because apparently their last two full-lengths were going to be one package. Well, it's good that they've gotten this out of their systems, because not only is "Precambrian" a worthwhile endeavor for heavy music fans, but hopefully now they can move on to some sort of union between their aggressive and progressive natures.

- Cardona

OFFICIAL SITE: www.theoceancollective.com

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