### The Ocean: Fluxion

#### 04/01/08 || The Duff

“Fluxion” is the lighter side to what was originally meant to be a double-album release, an album that, due to label problems or some such, could not be paired with the darker, more aggressive “Aeolian”. I don’t know if I really care all that much; with “Precambrian”, I feel The Ocean have achieved the perfect double-album release they were striving for with the “Fluxion/Aeolian” combo. At the time of recording this here album and what followed it in late-2005, the band hadn’t written two albums that slotted alongside each other so well. What’s more, I consider “Aeolian” to be the better album, despite the fact that I much prefer The Ocean when they space out their music and air it out a bit to form lengthy tracks that would indicate followers of Neurosis and Cult of Luna schooling – this is what is on display on “Fluxion”, an album that boasts some awesome material, but falls short of the greatness displayed on “Precambrian” while failing to offer anything different except for maybe music of a more upbeat kind.

Sound-wise, The Ocean are sounding quite unique, even with this earlier incarnation of the band. You get a lot of heavy, grandiose and pendulous riffs, gruff vocals (can’t say I’m as impressed as with the new guy on “Precambrian”, both in delivery and lyrical content; check out the album cover, and ask yourself whether it should really entail singing “from now on you’re free/so stick your cock up her ass” – the beauty of nature and lyrics suggesting serious sexual frustration that needs to be addressed in the presence of a professional don’t mix, I tell you), and possibly some of the most Isis-inspired music I’ve heard The Ocean produce. The drumming is very subdued, which is a shame, as I’ve found recent outputs from the band to be excelling in such a domain – then again, it’s not as though the music demands a frantic-tic-tic-toc (hey, remember that class-sic-sic-sic-cock of a song?) of a percussionist.

There are many times when a very simple riff will repeat, and the band won’t add a killer hook as a tail to make it a bit more relevant or bold, which isn’t something I’m accustomed to with this band having approached The Ocean’s discography backwards from “Precambrian”. The technical edge found in droves on “Aeolian” and in slightly diminished quantities on “Precambrian” is hardly to be found at all on “Fluxion”, and although there are moments of pure brilliance on this disc, overall I’m left underwhelmed, as I was expecting to be bowled over by the same majesty as that experienced on “Proterozoic”. Instead, I don’t exactly get the perfect complement to “Aeolian”, but instead a band that has decided to release an ambitious concept effort without the years of experience to back it up, and so you get an album that is undecided as to what it wants to be – there is a clash of styles here, and overall, though not a disappointment, “Fluxion” leaves some to be desired when taking into account The Ocean’s current status, as there are a few moments of boredom and a few moments where the album’s flow is interrupted by something that sounds out of place.

Don’t get me wrong – this is a very good CD. It’s just that this and “Aeolian” have both helped to devalue “Precambrian” in that The Ocean haven’t really broken new ground on their latest, and yet much to my dismay both are inferior to The Ocean’s 2007 monolithic undertaking. There are some great moments here that should interest those looking into the band’s earlier works, but also some of the blandest material I’ve heard from these talented folk (take the song “Equinox”, for example – despairingly tepid despite a promising opening), and also a lot of stuff that offers nothing new if you started with their latest effort of 2007. You want The Ocean at their most epic and grandiose, get “Precambrian”, not “Fluxion” – an album that hints at the greatness that would soon follow, but ultimately risks leaving one somewhat unmoved.

7 fish that think sticking your cock up her ass would be a bad idea out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2005
- Label: Metal Blade
- Website: www.theoceancollective.com
- Band
- Diego Alejandro Sañudo Ugarte: guitar, vocals
- Sebastian Diego Miguel: bass
- Nicolas The Hammer (haha, wtf?): drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Nazca
- 02. The Human Stain
- 03. Comfort Zones
- 04. Fluxion
- 05. Equinox
- 06. Loopholes
- 07. Dead on the Whole
- 08. Isla Del Sol
- 09. The Greatest Bane