Progressive metal outfit The Ocean (alternately known as The Ocean Collective) have released a new music video for “Oligocene,” filmed by band members Loic Rossetti, David Ahfeldt and Robin Staps, with editing and animation by Craig Murray. This latest track will be featured on the group’s forthcoming LP Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic, out September 25 via Metal Blade Records.
“Oligocene” is shot in a grainy sepia tone style, alongside what appears to be a mountain range in Eurasia, with telephone lines and an abandoned decayed building standing idle across this barren landscape. During the visual some unidentified figures enter the frame, and eventually overtake the abandoned building. The track itself is more on the progressive/post rock end of the group’s music, with brooding, yet subdued guitar lines, and eerie instrumentals across an anthemic drum rhythm that perfectly capture these isolating visuals.
“We found this place by accident: the dilapidated ruins of a soviet observatory and research station for cosmic radiation,” Staps explained. “The building itself looked like a spaceship that had crash-landed up high in the mountains, but there were lots of interesting structures scattered across the landscape: concrete cubes, underground tunnels, rusted machinery, fallen power poles and watchtowers. It all looked like taken straight out of Andrej Tarkovsky’s ‘Stalker‘ movie.”
This upcoming project will blend the group’s previous Earth pre-history themes with modern day issues such as climate change, which was a topic present on their single “Permian: The Great Dying.” It is also sequel to their 2018 studio album Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic.
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