Even in my days of constantly being on the hunt for progressive metal bands in the 10’s, I have always had trouble getting what others see in The Ocean. At their best they have some compelling riffs and builds to crescendos like the post metal tag suggests, but I have always found them lacking on an overall songwriting- and album-level. Of course, since post metal is very hit and miss in my book, sometimes being very mood based in the vein of atmospheric black metal, this might not be such a coincidence. I dwell on this point because in its entirety, Holocene is a very sedate album that sees this flaw amplified. This is apparent at first when you consider that the album does not get going with any kind of metal until past its midpoint in “Subboreal” (there are brief moments in “Preboreal” and “Sea of Reeds” but they only last a few seconds). This in itself does not have to be a flaw but what is there instead fails to impress. The album has a trip-hop feel to it at times, with a synthetic drum rhythm building for a few minutes in some tracks, that I wish the band would have explored better.
That the album is low on harsh moments really is not the problem I have with the album, rather it is how the elements in the tracks are used that makes this album sleep inducing. The trip-hop influence is left to sit by itself, not developing in any significant way. The metal parts, similarly, show up for contrasts and builds go nowhere. It makes most of the songs on Holocene sound like song stubs, waiting to be developed into actual The Ocean songs. This lack of development is felt severely across most of the longer tracks that stretch past the eight minute mark. The only real interesting moments in this album comes with the two penultimate tracks. “Unconformities” features a guest vocal performance by singer-songwriter Karin Park that comes off as a Lykke Li song in its vocal cadence and melody, before the song builds up and down with some metal. Unfortunately, apart from an inspired ending, it goes nowhere as the different parts of the track do not come together. The best song on here is “Parabiosis”, as it plays around with a poppy vocal hook, the trip-hop elements, something that sounds like a trumpet and features a well done solo that adds some much needed color next to it. In the end most of these songs feel wandering and unsure of what to do and it is dismaying to see this band release an album so nondescript, even if I was never a big fan.
