The Ocean is a progressive metal band started in 2000 by German guitarist Robin Staps. The band's first stable line-up was formed by 2009 during recording sessions for Heliocentric and Anthropocentric.
Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Ocean in 2005 (LtR: Nico Webers, Torge Liessmann, Andreas Hillebrand, Gordon Hünies, Der Lünd, Meta, Gerd Kornmann, Robin Staps) | |
Background information | |
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Also known as | The Ocean Collective |
Origin | Berlin, Germany |
Genres | Progressive metal, post-metal, sludge metal, avant-garde metal |
Years active | 2000–present |
Labels | Metal Blade, Make My Day, Throne |
Associated acts | War from a Harlots Mouth, Mozek Motors, Geld et Nelt, Llnych, Coilguns, Katatonia |
Website | www.theoceancollective.com |
Members | Robin Staps Loïc Rossetti Paul Seidel Mattias Hägerstrand |
Past members | See list of The Ocean band members |
The Ocean (also known as The Ocean Collective) is a German progressive metal band started in 2000 by German guitarist Robin Staps. The band's first stable line-up was formed by 2009 during recording sessions for Heliocentric and Anthropocentric.
The Ocean was founded in 2000 by guitarist and songwriter Robin Staps. During the following two years, about 40 musicians joined and left the band until a stable line-up was established. July 2002 saw The Ocean play their first concert at Berlin's now defunct semi-legal Eimer Club. Shortly after, the band released their eponymous debut album featuring Islands/Tides, a 30-minute-long song that also constituted the substance of their early live shows.
After a brief tour with Swedish crust punk outfit Coma in early 2003, the band signed to Make My Day Records, which then released Fogdiver, an EP consisting of five instrumental songs—despite the fact that on stage, at least two singers could be found. Unlike its predecessor, this recording received considerable acclaim from critics throughout a variety of genres.
During winter and spring 2004, The Ocean recorded what was to become the material for their two following albums.[1] The calmer and more atmospheric half of this recording session was released as Fluxion in August 2004; a joint effort of Make My Day and Throne Records. While the fact that the band now used vocals on their recordings seemed to make the music more accessible to some, it also caused many other critics to consider the album a step backwards in terms of innovation and originality. In interviews, the band would comment on this by pointing out the perceived closed-mindedness of some of the reviewers and their supposed inability to deal with the harshness and brutality the anti-Christian, anti-theistic vocals now added to The Ocean's sound.
After signing to Metal Blade Records in summer 2005, all the remaining songs from the session were released as Aeolian. Since Fluxion and Aeolian had originally been planned as a double CD with a mellow and a brutal part — a plan that did not work out — Aeolian came across as very different from its predecessor. Unlike on previous albums, classical instruments and electronic sounds were hardly used here, making the record sound rather minimalistic. But whereas Fluxion had featured only one singer, seven of them could be found on Aeolian, among them Nate Newton, Sean Ingram, and Tomas Hallbom, whose names were also used extensively for the album's promotion campaign. According to the band, Meta's voice on Fluxion had created a monotony that was to be avoided on Aeolian. March 2006 saw the North American release of the album. Later that year, a joint vinyl version of Fluxion and Aeolian was released by Throne Records, featuring three records in different colors.[2] In late 2007, they released a new 2 disc album entitled Precambrian. In April 2008, The Ocean embarked on a year-long tour through Europe and North America with bands like Intronaut, Opeth, and At The Gates. In April 2009 it was announced that lead vocalist Mike Pilat was leaving the band for personal reasons and other commitments.
On November 17, 2009, Robin Staps announced that a replacement vocalist had been found, Loïc Rossetti.[3] The Ocean released two albums in 2010, Heliocentric on April 9 and Anthropocentric on November 9. Taken together, the two albums 'represent a fundamental and philosophical critique of Christianity,'[4] with Heliocentric describing the internal battles within the Catholic Church over the heliocentrism of Copernicus and Galileo, and Anthropocentric critiquing the fundamentalistProtestant view of Creationism.
They announced that their first live DVD would be filmed on the 29 January 2011 in Berlin at the Museum für Musikinstrumente and will only contain tracks from their album Precambrian.
On August 3, 2011, The Ocean announced via its Facebook page that Robin Staps had been working on new material for an upcoming album. Tenda biru lirik. They stated that recording would get under way in early 2012 and hinted at the possibility of releasing another double album.[5] In a September 2012 article on the website MetalSucks, Robin stated that the new album was due for an April or May release in 2013 and would have very few if any vocals, but elaborated that Loïc remains the vocalist of the group despite the change in style.[6]
The band released Pelagial on April 29, 2013 in the United States. The CD version contained two discs - one has the songs with vocals, the other is purely instrumental.
On 20 October 2013, the band announced the departure of guitarist Jonathan Nido and drummer Luc Hess.[7] It was later announced that Paul Seidel of the band War From A Harlots Mouth would replace Hess after the current tour.[8] Additionally, on the 8th of December it was announced via the band's Facebook page that Australian Damian Murdoch would be the band's new guitarist.[9]
On 14 February 2018, a photo was posted on the Instagram account of the band, depicting a recording studio.[10] Three days later, another picture reached the surface stating that the 'phanerozoic' recordings are in progress at the Sundlaugin studios in Iceland.[11] The 22nd of August 2018, the band announced on their Instagram, that the new album will be split in two. Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic was released on 2 November 2018 while Phanerozoic II is expected to be released in 2019. These albums will respectively be the band's seventh and eighth studio albums.[12]
The Ocean has had many different line-ups since its inception in 2000. Until 2007, and again in 2015, the band was known as The Ocean Collective as it featured a revolving cast of members and (long-time) collaborators, centred around guitarist and composer Robin Staps.
by Fyodor Dostoevsky | |
Standalone copy of the chapter 'The Grand Inquisitor' | |
Country | Russian Empire |
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Language | Russian |
Genre(s) | Poem, parable, philosophical fiction, story within a story |
Pages | 22 |
'The Grand Inquisitor' is a poem (a story within a story) inside Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880). It is recited by Ivan Karamazov, who questions the possibility of a personal and benevolent God, to his brother Alexei (Alyosha), a novice monk. 'The Grand Inquisitor' is an important part of the novel and one of the best-known passages in modern literature because of its ideas about human nature and freedom, and its fundamental ambiguity.
Scholars cite Friedrich Schiller's play Don Carlos (1787) as a major inspiration for Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor, while also noting that 'The sources of the legend are extraordinarily varied and complex.'[1]
The tale is told by Ivan with brief interruptive questions by Alyosha. In the tale, Christ comes back to Earth in Seville at the time of the Inquisition. He performs a number of miracles (echoing miracles from the Gospels). The people recognize him and adore him at the Seville Cathedral, but he is arrested by Inquisition leaders and sentenced to be burnt to death the next day. The Grand Inquisitor visits him in his cell to tell him that the Church no longer needs him. The main portion of the text is devoted to the Inquisitor explaining to Jesus why his return would interfere with the mission of the Church.
The Inquisitor founds his denunciation of Jesus on the three questions that Satan asked Jesus during the temptation of Christ in the desert. These three are the temptation to turn stones into bread, the temptation to cast Himself from the Temple and be saved by the angels, and the temptation to rule over all the kingdoms of the world. The Inquisitor states that Jesus rejected these three temptations in favor of freedom, but the Inquisitor thinks that Jesus has misjudged human nature. He does not believe that the vast majority of humanity can handle the freedom which Jesus has given them. The Inquisitor thus implies that Jesus, in giving humans freedom to choose, has excluded the majority of humanity from redemption and doomed it to suffer.
Despite declaring the Inquisitor to be a nonbeliever, Ivan also has the Inquisitor saying that the Catholic Church follows 'the wise spirit, the dread spirit of death and destruction.' He says: 'We are not with Thee, but with him, and that is our secret! For centuries have we abandoned Thee to follow him.' For he, through compulsion, provided the tools to end all human suffering and for humanity to unite under the banner of the Church. The multitude then is guided through the Church by the few who are strong enough to take on the burden of freedom. The Inquisitor says that under him, all mankind will live and die happily in ignorance. Though he leads them only to 'death and destruction', they will be happy along the way. The Inquisitor will be a self-martyr, spending his life to keep choice from humanity. He states that 'anyone who can appease a man's conscience can take his freedom away from him'.
The Inquisitor advances this argument by explaining why Christ was wrong to reject each temptation by Satan. Christ should have turned stones into bread, as men will always follow those who will feed their bellies. The Inquisitor recalls how Christ rejected this, saying 'man cannot live on bread alone', and explains to Christ: 'Feed men, and then ask of them virtue! That's what they'll write on the banner they'll raise against Thee and with which they will destroy Thy temple. Where Thy temple stood will rise a new building; the terrible tower of Babel will be built again, and though, like the one of old, it will not be finished'. Casting himself down from the temple to be caught by angels would cement his godhood in the minds of people, who would follow him forever. Ruling over all the kingdoms of the Earth would ensure their salvation, the Grand Inquisitor claims.
The segment ends when Christ, who has been silent throughout, kisses the Inquisitor on his 'bloodless, aged lips' instead of answering him. On this, the Inquisitor releases Christ but tells him never to return. Christ, still silent, leaves into 'the dark alleys of the city'. Not only is the kiss ambiguous, but its effect on the Inquisitor is as well. Ivan concludes: 'The kiss burns in his heart, but the old man adheres to his idea'.
Christ's kiss may also mirror an event that occurs earlier in the novel when the elder Zosima bows before Dmitri Karamazov. No one seems to understand why Zosima does this, and Fyodor Karamazov exclaims: 'Was it symbolic of something, or what?'.
Not only does the parable function as a philosophical and religious work in its own right, but it also furthers the character development of the larger novel. The parable reveals Ivan's contempt for organized religion. After relating the tale, Ivan asks Alyosha if he 'renounces' Ivan for his views. Alyosha responds by giving Ivan a soft kiss on the lips, to which the delighted Ivan replies: 'That's plagiarism.. Thank you, though'. The brothers part soon afterward.
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