As for the band, the same rings true; They’re progressive, comprised entirely of Germans, and good for a release every couple of years (again, what).

Since we share so much in common, it only seems fair I review their new album Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic/Cenozoic. I’m blown away no one claimed this album first, especially following the masterpiece they released in 2018; Phanerozoic I: Paleozoic. Then again, everything I have ever heard from them can be called “great” at worst and “masterpiece” at best.

To say expectations were high for the new affair would be an understatement. The opening track, “Triassic” starts off very well with the guitar melody creeping its way into your brain amongst mostly subdued instrumentals. That bassadilla (patent pending) sounds brilliant, too. It’s an 8-and-a-half-minute opener which is essentially one big vocal hook. This isn’t an easy task to pull off without boring the listener, but nothing The Ocean does is easy (except your mom).

Possibly the best track on this entire album is the next one, which is called “Jurassic I Cretaceous.” It’s about 13 minutes and is basically two tracks in one. When it switches directions about halfway, I thought the vocals sounded a lot like Jonas Renske of Katatonia. Well, they actually sound exactly like him… because it is him. His vocals fit this track perfectly as it reminds me quite a bit of his band’s latter era work (which I criminally underrated earlier this year). Near the end, the vocals transition back to Loïc, who does his usual masterful job. The first two tracks are definitely standouts.

After those, there is a series of shorter tracks nestled in the middle, including an instrumental interlude called “Oligocene.” “Eocene” and “Miocene I Pliocene” surround that short interlude. While all of these tracks are important to the flow of the album, the others at the beginning and end of the track listing are far more important to the overall vibe, such as track 7, “Pleistocene.”

Speaking of; “Pleistocene” might be the most death metal The Ocean has ever been, at least to these ears. The track has an unhinged, about to fly off the rails, suffocating quality with harsh vocals and blast beats, specifically with about two minutes left. The build up to it is spellbinding. Dare I say it’s like drowning… in The Ocean (har har)?

The next track is the closer called “Holocene.” There’s a great chorus, but possibly the best part is that the refrain from the opening track is repeated near the end. It’s very well-done and it bookends the album beautifully.

The verdict is probably pretty clear. By the time this is posted, hopefully my bundle will have arrived. This is not their heaviest album. No, not by a long shot. In fact, it is possibly their least heavy. It’s more keyboard driven, but not to an overbearing degree. It’s catchy, passionate, and inventive all the way through. Album of the year material all the way through.

Though quoting the likes of Tool, King Crimson and Opeth in their promotional material, I don’t hear a lot of that. I get a more newer Envy (especially fourth track, “The Way Home”), Day Without Dawn, At the Sounddawn, latter Callisto, and other dreamier, softer hued post rock bands. Also, recent band, Ghostbound seemed to be a reference for the band’s delicately black metal injected ambient melancholy.

This is full of gorgeous, shimmering, layered strummed riffs that barely break into metal here and there with largely clean sung croons and a very rare, distant black metal rasp here and there. Opener “Crestfallen” opens with a minimalist, but addictive dreamy sway before “Pollen Cloud” delivers a short Oasis-like, mellow throb. Then “Towpath” delivers the most metal of the EP’s original tracks with black metal rasp over the patient, shimmery ambiance.

The EP’s highlight are the too short “The Way Home” with Robin Melinda Koob’s lovely delicate vocals and a blackened cover of  Washington State’s folk/Americana band Mount Eerie‘s “Lost Wisdom” where a killer frosty gallop surfaces amid the clean sung folky ambiance (where I really got the Ghost Bound vibe, even if it is a cover song) before an acoustic track “Pagan Plains” closes out this lovely little digital only release that has made me check out the band’s prior two albums.

Regardless, the 5 tracks displayed on this fine EP display some stunning, sludgy  post hardcore/post rock/screamo that’s about as finely crafted yet unique as any EP I’ve heard in some time and one of the rare times, I have no real comparison to make, except maybe The Circle Takes the Square.

It’s really been a long time that something like this grabbed my ear. Its got a tone and  presence that I simply have not heard in a long time if ever. The guitars are gritty and sludgy but layered with an almost cosmic ethereal clarity and layering that’s unlike any post -anything I’ve heard. The vocals are a throaty, harsh, black-ish hardcore scream with no effects or forced brutality- just emotion and conviction. Then there’s the actual songs, 25 minutes and 5 tracks of atonal, feisty crusty riffs, littered with some truly astounding moments of ambiance and melodic textures.

Opener “Angry Mother of Bones”  is a perfect intro to the band’s sound as it starts with a caustic rough and tumble but its last two minutes is a gorgeous, shimmery climax that’s to die for. The same superb dichotomy can also be found in the EPs standout track s  “Hands Collide” and closer “The Weight & Time”. And while having some of the tenets of typical post rock via ebbs builds and crumbling peaks, it sounds far more unique and less cookie cutter than many of their contemporaries. Throw in a requisite rangy long song “Men at Arms” and a little more experimental track in “Billions of Eyes” and you’ve got a pretty enthralling 25 minutes of music.

It’s out of the blue releases like this that makes this worthwhile and being able to expose releases like this to a larger audience (i.e the 36 of you that read this site) makes it s much more rewarding than my 678th tech death or deathcore review.

Now that almost everyone has left or is currently hammering furiously on the keyboard with an anti-Christian lash, I’ll proceed.

As with most post-rock, the seven longer songs (5-9 minutes) that comprise In Abstraction are full of delicate acoustic lulls and crescendos of hefty lurching riffs, but with A Hope For Home, it’s all glossed with a tangible (at least to Christians I imagine) sense of upward looking grace and truly emotional heft. And overall the songwriting, dynamics and depth of the material has improved greatly from a so-so Christian band to a truly evocative post-rock group that simply happen to be Christian.

This is evident immediately with opener “Calm” and second track “Out of Ruin, Misery”, two of the more striking tracks in the genre I’ve heard in quite some time — regardless of faith.  “Calm” gets right to it with an impressive Isis-ian lope and bellow that shows that the band has added a little oomph to their sound from The Everlasting Man. The delicate bridge about 1:45 in is simply gorgeous and its brief clean vocal section is perfectly placed and implemented. “Out of Ruin, Misery” has a similarly stunning moment about 5:05 in that’s just a killer rumbling riff and transition to a more elegant clean section.

That song bleeds into “Firewind”, a more expected softer track that starts a four song trek into the more introspective. The beautiful elements in the more  hymnal quartet of “Tides” and “The House Where You Were Born” and “Weave” transcend into much more personal and peaceful realms — with only the occasional mountainous bursts. It’s all admittedly a bit of a lull, but wrought with emotion. The the 9-minute epic closure, “Everything that Rises Must Converge”, ends the album with the same brilliant mix of clarity and heft as the opening two tracks. It actually starts with a rending somber acoustic section that could be lifted from a Mono track, before the song explodes into a melancholic metallic post-rock eruption that is truly captivating and comes across as a moving, heartfelt plea to the listener.

The three more ‘metal’ tracks alone make this worth while, and the added tracks of more delicate atmospheric shimmery moments just add a little grace to the proceedings. If these guys weren’t Christian, they would be having the same reception as Iron Thrones did a couple of years ago. To me they put off the same dynamic and hues. Highly recommended for the more open minded metal fans who enjoyed last year’s Junius CD, but who are in need of a little more positive balance in their listening habits.

But I try to stay the course and be objective as I can, and most readers probably don’t realize that I’m actually a devout (?) atheist, so my many Christian reviews aren’t some thinly veiled attempt at pushing my religion off on readers or using Teeth of the Divine as some sort of soap box. I’m actually trying to expose people to good music, and this, the second album from North Dakota’s Hands is indeed just that. Damn good music.

As with their 2009 debut, Creator, Give Me Rest is an artful melding of shimmery metalcore a la Life In Your Way/Misery Signals with a dose of lumbering  and atmospheric post-rock. And while label mates Your Memorial has the same mix on their impressive debut, Hands are able to render a much more elegant mix that’s as adept at lurching post-rock chords as well as typically Christian introspection and ambiance. To be quite honest, Give Me Rest might be one of the more thoughtful, beautiful and dynamic Christian metal albums I’ve heard since Life In Your Way called it quits.

You want rousing Christian anthem? Go to introductory opener “I Will”. Want lurching post-rock with deep throaty roars? Go to “Water”. Want shimmery emotive metalcore? Check out “Cube”. Want uplifting melodies and soaring hymnal vocals? “The Helix” and “Here I Am”  should hit the spot. Hands has it all, and while certainly leaning heavily on the more elegant, introspective and well… Christian side of things, they have the ability to simply shift and morph into something impressively heavy at will. Amid all the shimmery, delicate strumming and skyward looking vocals are moments of impressive heft and girth. Particularly the likes of “Jovian” which melds a very nice, heavy heaving riff and a bellowing vocal interplay. But that being said Hands, are just perfect at delivering prayer like anthems of of praise and joy; the closing trio of the down right gorgeous “Northern Lights” and “Restart” are three soaring metal sermons that will warm the metal head’s soul.

Of course, that is assuming that metal heads can get their collective heads out of their Necronomicons and Dungeons and Dragon guides. Zing.

Many will try to lump So Hideous, My Love  in with the band’s home state New York post black metal scene, and I can certainly see why and how. Personally, what I here hear is a band akin to The Pax Cecilia; a heavily orchestrated form of jangly, fierce metalcore with experimental and emotional black metal leanings (read Wolves in the Throne Room maybe).

Featuring heavily used synths that imbue MONO‘s classical strings , feral screams, shrill, tremolo picked riffs and and a swirling, busy and epic sense of dramatic prose (think Shai Hulud), the three songs and one interlude that fill this EP can often be awe inspiring, but also a bit overwhelming and certainly hard to classify.

Opener ‘Handprints on Glass” sets the tone with a slow classical build (yeah, that sounds like MONO alright) and a steady, building post rock gait, that seems to be some sort of unfinished intro rather than a full track.  But rather than explode in an another real track, interlude “Prelude In G Sharp Minor” sort of halts any potential momentum. It’s clear that the EP’s last two track are obviously the focal points of To Clasp A Fallen Wish With Broken Fingers; “However Boldly Their Warm Blood Split” and especially the title track.

My only real gripe is that all the tracks, no matter how epic or engaging they can be,  seem to come across as intros or teasers to much larger, unfinished pieces. There’s so much dramatic, tense build up, but no real release or climax–but by god–there is some potential here and I’m very interested to see what this band will deliver next.