Precambrian (album)
Encyclopedia
Precambrian is the third studio album by the German progressive metal
band The Ocean Collective
, released on November 5, 2007 through Metal Blade Records
.
The album has the participation of several musicians, including Caleb Scofield (Cave In
, Zozobra
, Old Man Gloom
), Nate Newton
(Converge
, Doomriders
), Dwid Hellion (Integrity
), Tomas Hallbom (Breach
), Erik Kalsbeek (Textures
) and musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
, an early part of the formation of Earth. Hadean
/Archaean (disc one) is heavy and raw just like their previous album Aeolian
while Proterozoic
(disc two) is more post-metal
-influenced with the inclusion of symphonic and electronic elements like their first album Fluxion.
The production of the album lasted more than six months after their tour in Europe in late 2006. All the drum tracks done by Torge Liessmann and most of the guitar tracks were recorded in Finland. Some of the guitar tracks and all of the vocals, bass guitar, percussion, samples, and various instruments played by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
were recorded in The Ocean's own Oceanland Studio in Berlin, Germany
. Additional vocals were recorded in Sweden
, Belgium
, The Netherlands, and Los Angeles
, California
and Seattle, Washington in the United States
. It was mixed by Andrew Schneider in New York City
. Originally the album's mastering
by Nick Zampiello dissatisfied Robin Staps so it was remastered in Finland. The artwork was done by Martin Kvamme, who has done artwork for various Mike Patton
projects like Fantômas
and Tomahawk
. The release in both the United States and Europe differed; the U.S. version is in a two disc crystal case while the European version is in a complex digipak
case with additional artwork.
Jonas Renkse
from Katatonia
and Bloodbath
was planned to be on the album but due to Katatonia's touring schedule during the production, The Ocean was not able to approach him on time. The Ocean wanted to have Dave Verellen
of Botch
to participate but he never responded back during production.
Progressive metal
Progressive metal is a subgenre of heavy metal originating in the United Kingdom and North America in the late 1980s...
band The Ocean Collective
The Ocean Collective
The Ocean is an experimental metal band from Berlin, Germany. Their work combines elements of progressive metal and electronic soundscapes, occasionally incorporating strings to create their aggressive post-metal sound. The band often describes its sound as "ambient soundtrack doomrock".- History...
, released on November 5, 2007 through Metal Blade Records
Metal Blade Records
Metal Blade Records is a record label which was founded by Brian Slagel in 1982. The U.S. corporate office for Metal Blade is located in Agoura Hills, California. It also has offices in Arizona, Germany, Japan, Canada, and the UK. The label is distributed in the U.S. by Sony BMG Music...
.
The album has the participation of several musicians, including Caleb Scofield (Cave In
Cave In
Cave In is an American rock band that formed in 1995, in Methuen, Massachusetts. After several members changes in the late 90's, their lineup solidified with the 1998 release of Until Your Heart Stops through Hydra Head Records. Their early albums were prominent releases in the independent...
, Zozobra
Zozobra (band)
Zozobra is a metal band that was first conceived by Caleb Scofield during 2006. He was joined by Santos Montano for the band's first release, Harmonic Tremors in 2007...
, Old Man Gloom
Old Man Gloom
Old Man Gloom is a sludge/doom metal/post-metal band originally formed in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States, but now based in Massachusetts. The group, formed by Aaron Turner of Isis and Santos Montano, has now expanded to become a sort of supergroup in the Boston hardcore and metalcore scene....
), Nate Newton
Nate Newton (musician)
Nate Newton is the bassist in hardcore band Converge.He also plays guitar and sings in two side projects, Old Man Gloom and Doomriders.Before relocating to the Boston area in 1999, he was in the Virginia Beach area hardcore punk bands Lift, Jesuit, Channel, Edison and Dwell...
(Converge
Converge (band)
Converge is an American band from Salem, Massachusetts. Playing a blend of hardcore punk and metal since 1990, Converge has helped to define many of the elements of the metalcore genre.-Description:...
, Doomriders
Doomriders
Doomriders is a heavy metal band from Boston, Massachusetts. The band has released two albums on Deathwish, Inc. The band's vocalist/guitarist Nate Newton also plays bass in Converge and guitar in Old Man Gloom. Jebb Riley formerly played bass in "There Were Wires". Doomriders have toured with...
), Dwid Hellion (Integrity
Integrity (band)
Integrity is a metallic hardcore band formed in 1988. Their lyrical themes include religion, the supernatural, mental illness, individualism, and the occult.- Discography :*Harder They Fall - Demo cassette - 1989...
), Tomas Hallbom (Breach
Breach (band)
-History:Swedish band formed in Luleå 1993. First full length album released in 1995. Pelle Gunnerfeldt from Fireside recorded and mixed several of the groups albums. Shortly after the release of Kollapse the band announced that they had decided to split up. The band played a reunion show in...
), Erik Kalsbeek (Textures
Textures (band)
Textures is a metal band from the Netherlands, formed in 2001. Textures' lineup revolves around founding members Jochem Jacobs, Stef Broks, Bart Hennephof, and bassist Remko Tielemans who joined in 2007...
) and musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Development
The main concept of the album is based around the times of PrecambrianPrecambrian
The Precambrian is the name which describes the large span of time in Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon, and is a Supereon divided into several eons of the geologic time scale...
, an early part of the formation of Earth. Hadean
Hadean
The Hadean is the geologic eon before the Archean. It started with the formation of the Earth about 4.7 Ga and ended roughly 3.8 Ga, though the latter date varies according to different sources. The name "Hadean" derives from Hades, Greek for "Underworld", referring to the "hellish"...
/Archaean (disc one) is heavy and raw just like their previous album Aeolian
Aeolian (album)
Aeolian is an album by the German band The Ocean Collective released in March 2006. Aeolian is the second part of a two-CD project that started with Fluxion...
while Proterozoic
Proterozoic
The Proterozoic is a geological eon representing a period before the first abundant complex life on Earth. The name Proterozoic comes from the Greek "earlier life"...
(disc two) is more post-metal
Post-metal
Post-metal is a music genre, a mixture between the genres of post-rock and heavy metal.Hydra Head Records owner and Isis frontman Aaron Turner originally termed the genre "thinking man's metal", demonstrating that his band was trying to move away from common metal conventions...
-influenced with the inclusion of symphonic and electronic elements like their first album Fluxion.
The production of the album lasted more than six months after their tour in Europe in late 2006. All the drum tracks done by Torge Liessmann and most of the guitar tracks were recorded in Finland. Some of the guitar tracks and all of the vocals, bass guitar, percussion, samples, and various instruments played by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
The Berlin Philharmonic, German: , formerly Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester , is an orchestra based in Berlin, Germany. In 2006, a group of ten European media outlets voted the Berlin Philharmonic number three on a list of "top ten European Orchestras", after the Vienna Philharmonic and the...
were recorded in The Ocean's own Oceanland Studio in Berlin, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Additional vocals were recorded in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, The Netherlands, and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and Seattle, Washington in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It was mixed by Andrew Schneider in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Originally the album's mastering
Audio mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
by Nick Zampiello dissatisfied Robin Staps so it was remastered in Finland. The artwork was done by Martin Kvamme, who has done artwork for various Mike Patton
Mike Patton
Michael Allan "Mike" Patton is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor, best known as the lead singer of the metal/experimental rock band Faith No More. He has also sung for Mr...
projects like Fantômas
Fantômas (band)
Fantômas is an avant-garde metal supergroup formed in 1998 in California, United States. The band is named after Fantômas, a supervillain featured in a series of crime novels popular in France before World War I and in film, most notably in the 60s French movie series.-History:Fantômas began just...
and Tomahawk
Tomahawk (band)
Tomahawk is an experimental alternative metal/alternative rock supergroup from the United States. They formed in 2000 when Fantômas, ex-Mr. Bungle and Faith No More singer/keyboardist Mike Patton and ex-The Jesus Lizard guitar player Duane Denison started swapping tapes with the intention of...
. The release in both the United States and Europe differed; the U.S. version is in a two disc crystal case while the European version is in a complex digipak
Digipak
Digipak is a patented style of CD, DVD or BD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI World Ltd., an Atlas Holdings company.-Features:...
case with additional artwork.
Jonas Renkse
Jonas Renkse
Jonas Petter Renkse is a founding member, songwriter, lead vocalist and ex-drummer of the band Katatonia, founding member, songwriter, bassist, backing vocalist, ex-guitarist of the band Bloodbath and member of Sailors With Wax Wings.He was also the founding member, drummer, vocalist, guitarist...
from Katatonia
Katatonia
Katatonia is a Swedish metal band formed in Stockholm in 1991 by Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström .-1991-1993:The early Katatonia releases, such as the EP Jhva Elohim Meth.....
and Bloodbath
Bloodbath
Bloodbath is a Swedish death metal supergroup from Stockholm formed in 1998.-History:A year after being formed, the band, then consisting of Mikael Åkerfeldt on vocals, Dan Swanö on drums, Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström on guitar, and Jonas Renkse on bass, released their EP Breeding...
was planned to be on the album but due to Katatonia's touring schedule during the production, The Ocean was not able to approach him on time. The Ocean wanted to have Dave Verellen
Dave Verellen
Dave Verellen grew up in Tacoma, Washington and was the vocalist for the mathcore band Botch. He has since gone on to play drums for the folk-country band Roy with his brother Ben Verellen . In 2008 he formed a band Narrows with members of Some Girls and These Arms Are Snakes.-References:...
of Botch
Botch (band)
Botch was a four-piece mathcore band from Tacoma, Washington, United States, that formed in 1993 and disbanded in 2002.-History:The band released two full-length albums and a handful of smaller releases including several singles and an EP. Its members went on an indefinite hiatus to form Roy,...
to participate but he never responded back during production.
Track listing
All songs and lyrics were written by Robin Staps, except where noted. All non-instrumental songs include sub-titles that corresponds to the lyrics provided, not to the main concept.II. Archaean
- "Eoarchaean" (Micheal Pilat, Staps) – 4:45
- "Paleoarchaean" (Charles BaudelaireCharles BaudelaireCharles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
, Staps) – 2:46 - "Mesoarchaean" (Comte de LautréamontComte de LautréamontComte de Lautréamont was the pseudonym of Isidore Lucien Ducasse , an Uruguayan-born French poet....
, Staps) – 5:20 - "Neoarchaean" (Lautréamont, Staps) – 5:24
III. Palaeoproterozoic
- "Siderian" [Instrumental] (Staps, Tomas Svensson) – 1:56
- "Rhyacian" (Friedrich NietzscheFriedrich NietzscheFriedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
, Lautréamont, Staps) – 10:57 - "Orosirian" – 6:29
- "Statherian" [Instrumental] (Kevin SpaceyKevin SpaceyKevin Spacey, CBE is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television...
, Staps) – 5:57
IV. Mesoproterozoic
- "Calymmian" – 8:18
- "Ectasian" (Georg TraklGeorg TraklGeorg Trakl was an Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most important Austrian Expressionists.- Life and work :Trakl was born and lived the first 18 years of his life in Salzburg, Austria...
, Staps) – 8:58 - "Stenian" – 8:19
V. Neoproterozoic
- "Tonian" – 7:18
- "Cryogenian" [Instrumental] – 3:32
Hadean/Archaean
- Torge Liessmann – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
(all tracks) - Matt Beels – guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
(all tracks) - Robin Staps – guitar, percussion (all tracks)
- Walid Farruque – guitar (track 2)
- Micheal Pilat – bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
(all tracks), vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
(tracks 1, 2, 3, 5) - Nico Webers – vocals (tracks 1, 2, 3)
- Nate Newton – vocals (track 3)
- Eric Kalsbeek – vocals (track 4)
- Meta – vocals (tracks 1, 5)
- Rene Nocon – vocals (track 3)
- Jason Emry – vocals (track 3)
Proterozoic
- Torge Liessmann – drums, percussion (all tracks)
- Matt Beels – guitar (all tracks), vocals (tracks 2, 6, 7)
- Robin Staps – guitar (all tracks)
- Micheal Pilat – bass (tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 7), vocals (tracks 2, 3, 6, 8)
- Hannes Huefken – bass (tracks 4 and 8)
- Jonathan Heine – bass (track 6)
- Stefan Heinemeyer – celloCelloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
(tracks 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9) - Karina Suslov – violaViolaThe viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
(tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) - Christoph Von Der Nahmer – violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
(tracks 2, 3, 4, 8) - Katharina Sellheim – pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
(tracks 2, 6, 7, 8, 9) - John Gürtler – saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
(track 1) - Daniel Eichholz – glockenspielGlockenspielA glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
(tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 7) - Jonas Olsson – tambourineTambourineThe tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
(tracks 5, 7, 8) - Tomas Svensson – additional samplesSampling (music)In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
(track 1) - Nico Webers – vocals (tracks 2, 5, 8)
- Meta – vocals (tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8)
- Tomas Halbom – vocals (track 7)
- Rene Nocon – vocals (tracks 3, 7, 8)
- Nate Newton – vocals (track 8)
- Dwid Hellion – vocals (track 6)
- Jan Oberg – vocals (track 6)
- Caleb Scofield – vocals (track 3)
- Kevin SpaceyKevin SpaceyKevin Spacey, CBE is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television...
– passage (track 4, audio from The Life of David GaleThe Life of David GaleThe Life of David Gale is a 2003 American drama film directed by Alan Parker and written by Charles Randolph.Kevin Spacey stars as the eponymous character, a college Professor and longtime activist against capital punishment who is sentenced to death for killing a fellow capital punishment opponent...
)
External links
- Precambrian at Metal Blade RecordsMetal Blade RecordsMetal Blade Records is a record label which was founded by Brian Slagel in 1982. The U.S. corporate office for Metal Blade is located in Agoura Hills, California. It also has offices in Arizona, Germany, Japan, Canada, and the UK. The label is distributed in the U.S. by Sony BMG Music...
- Precambrian at Metal Blade EuropeMetal Blade RecordsMetal Blade Records is a record label which was founded by Brian Slagel in 1982. The U.S. corporate office for Metal Blade is located in Agoura Hills, California. It also has offices in Arizona, Germany, Japan, Canada, and the UK. The label is distributed in the U.S. by Sony BMG Music...