The amount of butt shots.

Looking forward to this, song sounds like it's taking inspiration from all of their past records. For giggles I inputted the longitude and latitude coordinates for the first and last song and it takes you from Berlin to some body of water at the tip of Chile

It slaps

Digging it

As not a long time fan, I see the lineup changes a lot. Is there a few consensus line ups that are the "best" or viewed as the best by the fanbase? Does it align with certain LPs? Etc

Idk about the lineup shifts but for my money Precambrian and Pelagial are this band operating at their peak.

No line-up survived more than the previous one - from Phanerozoic I to Holocene, so better just to listen to the records as they are. Pelagial is my favorite, but Precambrian is close to it

First three albums were a revolving cast around Robin Staps. Heavy, sludgy, often very post-metal. Growled vocals, wild tempo changes, some analog explorations, and a string quartet. Precambrian is the jewel of this era.

Loic joined as vocalist and the next three albums were pretty steady. Songwriting got more melodic, with lots of clean vocals, and proggy tendencies thanks to Luc Hess on drums. The -Centrics were thematically cool but inconsistent. Pelagial put it all together with a conceptual and sonic descent from almost metalcore down to funeral doom.

Then everyone BUT Robin and Loic were replaced for three albums. Phan 1 found a middle ground between the earlier eras. Phan 2 hit hard early and then drifted toward a more ambient/electronic direction that Holocene dove fully into.

And now that Loic has left, it's basically back to a collective. A pretty clean 3/3/3 evolution. Coma's picks are on point. I'd add Phan 1 and the re-recording of their debut next. The galaxy-brain move is to start with their double-live album.

Thank you for attending my TED talk. Now to actually listen to this thing...

Phan 1 was the absolute peak.

The new lead singer sounds really good. The cleans are very similar, without the thick accent, and the screams are basically 100% the same as Loic's

Who's the girl tho (heavy Yoko Ono vibes),

Yoko can't sing.

Music video is making me think of Artificial Sky by Failure.

Pelagial is a masterpiece..

Heliocentric is an underrated gem.

This band will exist for as long as Robin wants it to, The Ocean is his baby. I think the fact that the early albums where a revolving door of members makes a line up change this drastic not as bad for this band as other bands.

"Heliocentric is an underrated gem."

Firmament is top tier.

Helio/Anthro are overhated tbh

Are they weakee than the rest of the bands output? Yeah but they are still damn good

"Firmament" and "Origin of Species / Origin of God" pair are 🤌

Song gets better with every listen

Who's the girl tho (heavy Yoko Ono vibes)

It's Lane Shi (Otay:Onii). She is great

So hype for this album.

song was absolutely top tier, always can rely on The Ocean to come up with the goods no matter what and I loved Lane´s vocals as well, sometimes you just need a 5 foot girl to yell on your songs to break up the clean sining up, and this was great

@seven - Thank you! Couldn't have been a better response

Glad it hit the spot. Lots of good takes in this thread.

@nash1331

The Great Dying is the best.

"Helio/Anthro are overhated tbh"

You kinda need to remember that back then this site was full of elitist phaggits,
Thank God they're not on this website anymore since they prefer watching their girlfriend rammed by bulls instead of writing 2.5 reviews for the new The Ocean album.

The Space Lady Who Wore Tennis Shoes (2026)

“ You kinda need to remember that back then this site was full of elitist phaggits”


Or, hear me out, they were a disappointment compared to the 3 albums before them

Very awesome! Love it. Glad the new vocalist can hold his own against Loic's legacy--he sounds great!

"Or, hear me out, they were a disappointment compared to the 3 albums before them"

eeehhh... it was different than Precambrian, but Precambrian is kinda samey, I can't sit through it all.
It was different, but considering how "avant-garde" people on this site were back then... bunch of egocentric sociopaths.
Jacking off to Bon Iver, Swans, Radiohead, Have a Nice Life.... losing their shit over horrible black metal...
Gosh Gaslight Anthem and Mezinger uuughhhh what a horrible time to be alive!

sounds like… a personal problem!

"sounds like… a personal problem!"

Oh yeah, of course it is a personal problem bro, I defo have a problem with not wanting to be cuck!
To each their own tho.

don’t disagree about the artists brought up but you weren’t even around so idk why you’re mad about something from before your time. that’s pretty damn weird.

"don’t disagree about the artists brought up but you weren’t even around so idk why you’re mad about something from before your time. that’s pretty damn weird."

I was bro, I've been here since 2006...
I had a different account tho, which I never could recover after 2010.
I owe many cool music to sputnik, but ppl were obnoxious.

People are still obnoxious

"People are still obnoxious"

Oh boi, you have no idea how it was back then...
The site was filled with people, and like 75% of them were like really miserable sociopaths...
I was there Gandalf, 3K yrs ago....

This page has lost a LOT of that people over the years, I don't see them anymore, maybe they died, who knows!
Just look at how many ratings a Converge or a Deftones new release get, I'm pretty sure the admins must know that the drop has been significant.

That’s honestly due to terrible UI, and people can’t even sign up lol

"That’s honestly due to terrible UI, and people can’t even sign up lol"

Oh yeah, I remember someone telling me that, I think it was Hawks when I asked him why in the hell I couldn't update my pfp...
I hope they can still monetize at least...

"We've witnessed several communication revolutions throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, but have we actually become any better at communicating?" comments Robin Staps. "Has there really been forward movement, or has the motion been orbital — have we merely been treading water?"

ok boomer

Big cloudkicker vibes. Dig it

Pretty good. I was worried about where Robin was gonna take the project next. This soothes me for sure.

"'We've witnessed several communication revolutions throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, but have we actually become any better at communicating?" comments Robin Staps. "Has there really been forward movement, or has the motion been orbital — have we merely been treading water?'"

ok boomer"

I mean, we are talking about the same guy who wrote the r/atheism lyrics for Anthropocentric and Heliocentric, soooo...

BUT THE OLD MAN ADHERES TO HIS IDEA
BUT THE
OLD MAN
ADHERES TO HIS
IDDDEEEAAAAA