CD Review: The Ocean - Anthropocentric

As seen on The Klepto's Guide:

After my write-up of the superb Heliocentric, I was expecting something sonically akin to it with The Ocean's next release with mixed success. Anthropocentric, the second full-length release by the band, follows it's predecessor... sort of. While Heliocentric was a venture into the unknown, merging sounds and thoughts together in creative ways, Anthropocentric is more angry sounding, focusing more on the NWOAHM influences then anything else. While they do try to mix in songs into the mix, most notably "The Grand Inquisitor III: A Tiny Grain of Faith" which is beautifully haunting, they are just few and far between. While the album is still good - a really good collection of head-banging material - it isn't what I wanted following the wet-dream that is Heliocentric.
By no means is this a bad album, I find myself jamming out to several of the songs, with no 'bad' songs to speak of, just a mix of 'good' and 'ok.' It's just missing the flare of the previous release. I'm sure if I had heard the albums in reverse order I would think it was a build up to greatness. But as it stands, the group hit it's peak, and are now on the way down the other side. Still high above the clouds of mediocrity, but no longer at the peak of awesomeness.
Another quick article about a band I apparently don't know enough about. I'm going to give the rest of their discography a listen through, to better understand the group. Although from what I've read, the previous works sound more like the quintessential post-metal of which I am not a huge fan.

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CD Review: The Ocean - Heliocentric

As seen on The Klepto's Guide: 

I threw on Heliocentric, what I thought was The Ocean's newest album (until I saw they had just released Anthropocentric), just to have some background noise after I got home from a dull day at work. I just wanted something that would fade into the background as I checked my email and chatted with the roommate. After the first song or two I realized that I had stumbled upon something different.
Where most post-metal albums (the ones I've heard anyway) tend to be atmospheric and trance-like, Heliocentric was the opposite. It contained songs with full thoughts and structure, Not only that but it also had songs of different composition and instrumentation mixed in. It wasn't the same old picture rehashed track after track.
Besides the ho-hum intro track, the rest of the album contained solid sonic gold. This is just a quick little article, because it was my first listen of Heliocentric, and I have previously not liked any other album by The Ocean, so I don't have a lot to say. I feel now that I have to go back and give the rest a try, after hearing the (truly) newest album, Anthropocentric, of course.
As it stands now, Heliocentric, is one of the best albums I have heard of the year, and would make a great addition to my Favorite Albums page. I want to listen to it a couple more time before I do a full write-up of that however. Let the waves of The Ocean caress my brain a little more. Keep tuned for that and a following article (probably) about Anthropocentric.

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