The Ocean – “Bathyalpelagic II: The Wish in Dreams” [SoundCloud Song Stream]

The Skinny: Today The Ocean is pleased to present “Bathyalpelagic II: The Wish in Dreams” from their forthcoming new studio offering, Pelagial. Possibly their deepest and most profoundly sophisticated work to date, Pelagial is a progressive musical journey written, recorded, mixed and to-be-performed-live as one single 53-minute piece of music. Mixed and mastered by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Katatonia, Witchcraft) at Fascination Street Studios in Örebrö, Sweden, Pelagial will be released as a double CD, which includes a vocal and an instrumental version of the album and is scheduled for release on April 26th/29th (Europe) and April 30th (North America/world) through Metal Blade Records.

The concept of the album is made evident in its title, Pelagial. Listeners will be further submersed as they journey with the band, beginning at the surface of the ocean and plunging through all five pelagic depth zones: epipelagic, mesopelagic, bathyalpelagic, abyssopelagic, and hadopelagic. In synch with diminishing light and increasing pressure as one dives or sinks deeper into the ocean, the album begins rather light and progressively gets heavier and slows as the band reaches the unfathomable depths of the hadopelagic zone, characterized by complete darkness and a thousandfold increased pressure as compared to surface level. What is amazing about Pelagial is that this is not some detached conceptual idea; this can actually be heard and felt while listening to the album.