THE OCEAN have announced details about their two upcoming albums entitled Heliocentric and Anthropocentric. They are due for April and October 2010 releases, respectively.
The concept at the base of both albums is a critique of Christianity from different philosophical and personal angles.
While the songs, art and lyrics of Heliocentric tell the story of the rise of the heliocentric world view and its effects on Christian belief from medieval times to Darwin and Dawkins, Anthropocentric challenges the views of creationists and other modern fundamentalists who still believe that the earth is at the center of the universe.
The tracklisting of Heliocentric is as follows:
1. “Shamayim” 2. “Firmament” 3. “The First Commandment of the Luminaries” 4. “Ptolemy Was Wrong” 5. “Metaphysics of the Hangman” 6. “Catharsis of a Heretic” 7. “Swallowed by the Earth” 8. “Epiphany” 9. “The Origin of Species” 10. “The Origin of God”
Musically, Heliocentric covers the largest range of dynamics and styles to date: “There are a few really calm songs with mainly piano and vocals, as well as some crushing heavy tunes. There is a very special atmosphere to it that pervades the album”, comments guitarist Jonathan Nido.
“Our new vocalist Loic Rossetti has immensely widenened the musical spectrum of this band and there are some songs on the album that even those people who have conceived of this band as being unpredictable and daring would have never imagined”, adds Robin Staps. “But this is exactly what makes it a 150% THE OCEAN album.
“Heliocentric continues where the Proterozoic half of the Precambrian album left off, with dense, epic songs and big orchestrations. Anthropocentric is going to be a bit more straight forward rocking and technical, whilst tapping the full dynamic range from acoustic pieces to eclectic heaviness as well.
“The albums were mainly recorded in the mountainous isolation of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, the highest city of Europe. The band decided to record and mix the album with the band’s house sound engineer Julien Fehlmann: “We wanted to be in control of every single detail, and we have an amazing studio at hand here. Soundwise this is by far the best-sounding album we have done to date.”
The lyrics and snippets of every song of the album can be previewed at:
http://www.theoceancollective.com/heliocentric http://www.myspace.com/theoceancollective