The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic | Entire Album Reaction!

Prog fans! Need you guys to show love on this video by leaving a 👍🏽 Appreciate ya❤️

Have to comment because my god, Permian is literally my favorite song of all time. Reason being, that I've never before (or after, for that matter) heard a band encapsule the feel of something as elusive as extinction in such an emotionally accessible way. It doesn't really happen quickly, but just trudges on inevitably until the climax at the end signifies the finality of it all. I cannot even fully put my finger on what exactly it is that gets me the most. Maybe it's the parallels in the lyrics to the current mass extinction we are living in, I honestly don't know. Me being a paleontology nerd does help though. Thanks for listening to it even if it's not exactly your cup of tea, always appreaciate your honesty.

With them releasing a album soon, I’ve been going back through their previous albums. Nascent is still one of my favorite songs of all time and the ending of Permian hits harder when you’ve listened to part 2 and the production of that album has a much “dryer” tone to it

Now im hoping phanerozoic 2 Mesozoic | Cenozoic also becomes a video like this. Great video as always!

I love how they play with dynamics across these songs. Breaking up the walls of sound with those awesome breaks with a focus only a few instruments... Especially the drums, synths, and that awesome bass guitar. Those quiet sections of Permian: The Great Dying always send chills down my spine. It's almost like the quiet sections of Tool's Schism... Fucking beautiful

This album is absolutely incredible and so immersive, album to me the songwriting has improved 10 fold since Pelagial and it feels even more so like being taken into a vast ocean of water and completely submerged by its weight, the riffs are so crushing and you just want to groove along to them at every second. I love the concept, I am very much into geology over geography, I love learning about how the earth was formed and the earths history. Great react as always 👍

I saw The Ocean live with Leprous last year. Unfortunately their vocalist had broken his legs recently and was unable to be there, but they still did a great show without him. I even met Robin Staps after the show, I fist-bumped him and he complimented my Gojira shirt

Some scientific information about these periods for your info which can help adding context. Cambrian: As you read, this started with what is called the Cambrian Explosion where all major animal groups (relatively) suddenly appear in the fossil record. Note this isn't when animals first evolved (that was earlier) and what these animals looked like was very different from what exists now (look up Anomalocaris, Wiwaxia, Hallucigenia, and Opabinia for examples). All animals and plants were in the water but we do have the very first super simple fish (Haikouichthys). Ordovician: The modern animal groups start developing into somewhat more familiar forms than the super weird Cambrian ones. Stuff like starfish and corals look relatively normal but we also have weird stuff like squids with long shells (Orthocones). The period ends with a mass extinction that's not fully understood but it seemed to coincide with an ice age (hence "The Glaciation of Gondwanna" title). Silurian: This is where fish really started to diversify but were still not the main things in the sea. The sea scorpions mentioned in the title were the dominant organisms (though they're not technically scorpions. Look up eurypterids). We also just start getting the first plants on land besides super simple moss and the first land animals (which were pretty much all insect/arachnid/etc. ancestors). Devonian: By now fish have fully dominated the seas, including a crazy group called the Placoderms which literally had bone armor on their faces (and some were enormous. Look up dunkleosteus). On land plants really started evolving into trees and forests with the first amphibians evolving to be on land as well. This is conveyed through the song by it "starting wet" and transitioning out of it. Carboniferous: This is when most of the land was covered by swamp forests and amphibians, giant insects (there was a dragonfly ancestor the size of a hawk), and the first reptiles inhabited them. The period ended with another ice age which caused the vast majority of these forests to collapse and the climate became much cooler and drier. Permian: With a drier climate, reptiles became the dominant land animals. They sort of split into three main categories: ancestors to modern lizards/snakes, ancestors to crocodiles/dinosaurs/birds, and ancestors to mammals (look up synapsids). As the period progressed things got hotter but remained dry, resulting in much of the Pangea supercontinent to become a desert. This culminated with an absolutely devastating mass extinction (half of Siberia basically exploded volcanically in what is called a flood basalt eruption. The remains of this are still seen as something called the Siberian Traps). This extinction killed 90-95% of everything making it the worst mass extinction of animal life ever. This set the stage for the few that did survive to take over in the following periods (namely the dinosaurs). Musically I personally prefer Phanerozoic II to this, so even if you felt you didn't super click with this one you should still look forward to listening to Phanerozoic II.

Hey Drew, I seen the Ocean live in whelans Dublin last year, they were honestly one of the best bands i have seen live in a while, Unreal performance. I also seen you at the Gojira gig at national stadium but didn't disturb you as you were fairly jamming to ALien Weaponary so i left you alone haha. Loving the album reviews 👍

Thank you so much for the honest and deep reaction ❤ Big shoutout to the guys from The Ocean who created this masterpiece and have another one in queue, can't wait for it. I think for the first reaction it might be better to concentrate only on the music than reading the lyrics on top, especially with the Ocean, where they also write in perspective of abstract things like nature, climate, water or the earth, which for many people is just not easy to "feel into". Phanerozoic:II closes the circle to Precambrian and Phanerozoic:I and one shouldn't leave it open... 😉

one of my favorite bands of all time

They always do run 2 stories side by side like pelagial was the layers of the ocean like you know but it was also about delving deeper into the minds psyche, influenced by the movie stalker.

This album has a more in depth concept than was explained: for the most part, this album is about the theme of eternal recurrence, and how natural events will repeat themselves, and it uses the vessel of this era partially as a retelling of events, but also metaphorically. Part of the way that I’ve interpreted this album is as a telling of future events leading to a culminating mass extinction, following the same trajectory as the Paleozoic era, and paralleling them. My interpretation is probably wrong, but such is life. It’s enjoyable to speculate.

I’m not entirely sure but I feel like if you like The Ocean you might dig Neurosis as well. If you ever get the chance, you should give them a listen, if they’re not your thing, much respect anyway, they just put out vibes like this imo and I’m an The Ocean fan myself

Precambrian is a must listen. A double album very varied and intense. This one and their last album didnt click much with me unfortunately, with a few exceptions.

Great reaction to an amazing album! Regarding the replay value, it's obviously down to personal preference, but at least for me the replay value of this album comes from the intricacies of the arrangements. All of the instruments play together very deliberately, and I love to lean in and try to spot all the little details in the music, from the sound of the instruments to the complex bass lines to the little synth lines in the back. Anyways, very good video! Hope to see you check out more of their albums in the future!

Saw them in Whelan's, Dublin last year. They were fucking phenomenal. Really nice guys to chat to too. 🤘

the wall of sound, what is crushing on you, at the end of the great dying, is the such a good ending for an absolut great album :D

just wanted to chip in that phyla is a subdivision of species within the different kingdoms of living organisms , just above class (usually the kingdom are 3-6: eubacteria, archaeobacteria, plants, fungi, animals and protista. phyla is the category just under kingdoms, like we are chordates among animals). BTW i love the ocean am i'm happy you're getting to know them and hope you'll check the following album because i feel like they get better and better. i hope you like even half of how much i got to like them :)

Infinite love. ♾️