Although they're best known as the Ocean, this Berlin, Germany, outfit's original name is perhaps more fitting - the Ocean Collective - as they are a hefty eight members strong. And on the group's 2007 release, Precambrian, the Ocean continue to specialize in a hard-hitting approach that touches upon such similar styles as extreme metal and doom metal. But unlike the majority of groups that fall under either of these two categories, the Ocean are not a one-dimensional band. No siree, as such styles as prog ("Neoarchean") and even Middle Eastern-esque soundscapes ("Siderian") are used to create some much needed shelter - albeit momentary - from all the fury. However, don't be fooled into thinking that Precambrian is all about surprise detours - ditties such as the album-opening "Hadean" and "Paleoachean" are instant headbanging highlights…

What a difference three years and a new vocalist make. German-Swiss band the Ocean has had nearly 40 members since songwriter/guitarist Robin Staps founded the Ocean Collective a decade ago. The addition of vocalist Loïc Rossetti has, according to Staps, influenced the very nature of how the Ocean creates music. Heliocentric is the first of two companion albums to be issued in 2010.
Musically, Heliocentric stands apart from everything the Ocean has ever recorded. The band’s production and compositional approaches are much more spacious than on previous outings. For starters, Rossetti spends most of his time actually singing rather than growling. There are more textures here, but they are employed economically…

As befits their namesake, the Ocean think big. This album is the second half of a two-disc set; the first half, Heliocentric, was released at the beginning of 2010, with this disc finishing out the year. These two discs succeed a two-CD set, Precambrian, released in 2007. Each of these (each Ocean record, really) is a sit-down-with-the-lyric-sheet-and-ponder experience; it's possible to just let the loud guitars and thundering drums wash over you, as you would with, say, High on Fire, but that's so clearly not what the band wants to happen that Anthropocentric ceases to be cathartic, like all the best metal, and starts to feel like homework. That's not to say that the band doesn't rock. "The Grand Inquisitor II: Roots & Locusts" has a headlong fury that's reminiscent of the Mars Volta at times, and the title track is a near-ten-minute stomp, like Isis crossed with the early-'90s hardcore band Judge…

Featuring three albums from Melvins' time at Atlantic Records. When the grunge sound of Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam broke alternative rock into the mainstream at the start of the 1990s, there was a sudden rush by the major labels to sign a slew of previously underground bands with a similar sound. Although a lot of those musicians only saw their underdog status and relative geography in common - many of them came from in and around Seattle, Washington - it was enough to wipe away the hair metal and glam rock that had ruled the 1980s. Many bands from the Pacific North West, including Screaming Trees, Tad, Alice In Chains and Mudhoney, would benefit from this windfall of major label contracts, but one of the more surprising signings were The Melvins. Atlantic signed Melvins for their 5th album, 1993's 'Houdini' (CD1). Sporting a cover design by famed poster artist Frank Kozik, 'Houdini' was in part co-produced by Kurt Cobain, and their most commercially successful release was recorded mainly by Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover. A cover of KISS' 'Goin' Blind' shouldn't have surprised any of their long term fans, and the songs 'Hooch' and 'Lizzy' were issued as singles, with 'Honey Bucket' even receiving airplay on MTV.

Since issuing Aeolian in 2005, Berlin's continually evolving extreme music collective the Ocean have created conceptual recordings that reflect the evolutionary, violent character of nature itself with a musical signature that combines progressive, sludge, hardcore, and atmospheric post-metal. Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic is the first of two releases - the second is forthcoming in 2020. After 2013's glorious Pelagial, which charted the savage and harmonious life of the sea, Phanerozoic I returns the focus to solid ground; it is the proper sequential sequel to 2007's Precambrian and the missing link between it and 2010's Heliocentric/Anthropocentric.
While Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic continues some of the genre traits and strategies of Pelagial, it's musically more akin to the progressive metal feel of Precambrian…

Since 2007's Precambrian, the Ocean has become increasingly conceptual. Two separate offerings from 2010, Heliocentric and Anthropocentric, had longtime fans in a quandary as to whether the band were visionaries or merely pretentious. Over two years in the making, Pelagial was originally envisaged by guitarist, lyricist, and band mastermind Robin Staps as a single piece of instrumental music that charted the seven levels of the sea - Epipelagic, Mesopelagic, Bathypelagic, Abyssopelagic, Hadopelagic, Demersal, and Benthic - by portraying their depths musically, from the surface where light enters (Epipelagic) to the murky, enclosed-in-darkness ocean floor (Benthic) where bottom feeders live. Staps was also influenced deeply by Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky's masterpiece Stalker, a work that charts the journey of three men through a bleak (presumably post-apocalyptic) landscape to a room where all desires can be fulfilled…

The origins of 'Stone' go back to 2020. It is not a pandemic record, but the core of it was written during its darkest days. Anxiety, relief, and resolve are stitched deeply throughout. When the foursome was isolated in Pennsylvania and New York, turning stems of music into full-fledged songs felt insurmountable. Baroness toiled as the world roiled. Creativity fully flourished only when they escaped to an Airbnb in Barryville, a quaint hamlet on the New York/Pennsylvania border. The undulating 'Beneath the Rose', the energetic drive of 'Anodyne', the trad-metal burlof 'Last Word,' and the dynamic introspection of 'Shine' rushed out, as did the motorik of 'Choir' and the emotional heft of 'Magnolia'. Stone was a sort of catharsis, a turning of the page, a middle finger to the suffocating insincerity of expectation.

After ten years and five albums of groundbreaking progressive death metal, Neurosis have managed to carve a highly original niche for themselves… coming off somewhat like a Tool for extremists. Yeah, you heard right. But while this Oakland bunch deserve great kudos for such unwavering commitment to their vision, they seem fated to remain confined to well-kept secret status for remaining so stubbornly inaccessible. 1999's Times of Grace adds another chapter to this ongoing dilemma by delving ever deeper into the group's hypnotic semi-industrial dirge. But whereas previous efforts tended to suffer from erratic songwriting and uneven pacing, many tracks taking painfully long to build towards their crescendos, this album offers the most seamless continuity of any album in the band's challenging discography…

Neurosis is a band with a distinctive sound driven by sludgy guitars and aggresive screaming vocals while still maintaining atmospheric. They are often regarded as the pioneers of post- metal and have influenced many major bands in that genre, like Isis and Pelican. The band's seventh full length studio album, A Sun That Never Sets, shows the band taking a more avant- garde and experimental direction than before.
The album features very frequent softer and atmospheric parts, making the album very atmospheric. The songs often progress, starting out with clean guitar playing and slowly moving towards sludgy riffs and fierce screams. Despite the low tempos that the sludgy riffs are played in, they rarely fail to sound powerful, fierce and rough…

Neurosis built their reputation on - to put it one way - long-winded compositions, making their albums a challenging listening experience for even the most dedicated fans. And their fifth album, Through Silver in Blood, doesn't buck the trend, diving headlong into the group's entirely unique experiments in ambient, progressive death metal with the mesmerizing 12-minute title track. With the exception of two minute-long interludes, much of the remaining material follows this blueprint, with abnormally long tracks like "Aeon" and "Purify" gradually building from simple melodies into trance-inducing epics. Conversely, other songs take an unbearably long time to develop, crawling toward their climaxes so slowly (see "Strength of Fates") - or toward no climax at all (see the tortured screaming of "Enclosure in Flame") - that one's attention span is severely tested. It is therefore of little wonder that Neurosis' appeal remains so selective.

The Devil You Knew, The Devil You Know is an extended play by The Melvins, released in April 2023 via Amphetamine Reptile Records. Originally intended to be a re-issue of the Six Songs EP, it would in turn feature the original 1986 recordings along with the entire EP re-recorded by the band in early 2023 as one of several releases for The Melvins' 40th anniversary.

Call of the Mastodon collects the influential Atlanta metal band's earliest recordings. Remixed and remastered by longtime engineer Matt Washburn, five of the nine cuts, "Shadows That Move," "Welcoming War," "We Built This Come Death," "Hail to Fire," and "Battle at Sea," appeared on the group's 2001 debut EP, Lifesblood. The other four sound like they were from the same sessions, and rely heavily on the group's trademark bone-crushing rhythmic assault. Even in their formative stage, Mastodon - few groups manage to do such justice to their moniker - sound like seasoned vets, and while there may be nothing as seamless as 2004's "Blood & Thunder" or "Megalodon," Call of the Mastodon is a brutal blueprint for the group's signature Metallica-meets-grindcore mayhem.

Appearing near the dawn of the 21st century, Atlanta's Mastodon established themselves as one of the most original and influential American metal bands. Their wide-angle progressive approach encompasses stoner and sludge metal, punishing hardcore and metalcore, neo-psych, death metal, and more - sometimes in the span of a single song. The group's playing style incorporates heavy, technically complex guitar riffs, lyric hooks, long, melodic instrumental passages, and intricate, jazz-influenced drumming with syncopated time signatures. Their second album, 2004's Leviathan, was a concept offering based on Moby Dick, Herman Melville's iconic novel of whaling and obsession, and proved the band's commercial and critical breakthrough. Since its release, the record has attained status as one of the most important albums in heavy metal's history…

Pantera (/pænˈtɛrə/) was an American heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas, formed in 1981. The group's best-known lineup consisted of the Abbott brothers (drummer Vinnie Paul and guitarist Dimebag Darrell), along with vocalist Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown…

Underground is the 2018 album by Seattle rock band Willard. Originally recorded in 1993 when grunge rock was king, the tracks were recorded and planned for release after they released their debut album but they didn't make it through. This was released by Black Guitar Records,