Interview with Robin Staps of The Ocean

The Ocean released their 6th
album, Pelagial, this past April.

The Ocean is a progressive metal band from Berlin, Germany led by guitarist Robin Staps. The band released three albums between 2004 and 2008 as a revolving cast of musicians (upwards of 30 at points) before settling on its current five members. The quintet's sixth album, Pelagial, was released earlier this year on Metal Blade records. I interviewed Robin about his writing process, the new lineup, and their spot on the upcoming Summer Slaughter tour with Dillinger Escape Plan.

New Music: Kalmah - Seventh Swamphony

Album Score: 8.5/10

Few bands have exemplified the maxim “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” better than Kalmah. Since 1998, Finland’s answer to In Flames and At the Gates has been machining high-octane death metal with commendable consistency, with a slight turn towards thrash in the middle of its discography.  Now on its seventh album in fourteen years, Kalmah seems to have flown under the radar somewhat compared to contemporaries such as Dark Tranquility and Soilwork. Perhaps it’s because Kalmah arrived on the scene a few years late, or because they’re from Oulu instead of Gothenberg, but this oversight certainly isn’t due to a lack of quality material. It wouldn’t be hard to make a case for Kalmah’s second album They Will Return being a genre classic, and five of its six full-length efforts are generally held in high regard (with 2008’s For the Revolution perhaps falling short of the rest).  So Seventh Swamphony comes with something of a pedigree, as Kalmah’s core lineup of brothers Pekka and Antti Kokko, bassist Timo Lehtinen and über-drummer Janne Kusmin are back for another swamptastic voyage.

Artist Highlight: Light Bearer

Key Album: Lapsus (2011)

There are bands that take their music seriously, and then there is Light Bearer. Behind the monolithic riffs and post-metal crescendos is a group of musicians who have a story to tell, and Light Bearer’s scheduled four-album cycle is their medium. Drawing from a wide array of influences, including the Book of Genesis, Dante’s Inferno, Paradise Lost, and His Dark Materials, Light Bearer has put together an epic narrative as a metaphor for human nature and the corruption of religion. Also presented over the tetralogy are ideologies on such diverse subjects as gender discrimination, the evolution of sexuality, and cultural stereotypes. This is a band that has put a great deal of time and thought into its project, and so far the results are stunning.

Interview: Josh Durocher-Jones of Howl

Howl is a heavy metal band based in Providence, Rhode Island. The group released its sophomore album Bloodlines in April of this year. I contacted guitarist Josh Durocher-Jones, who was brought in shortly after the band released its debut in 2010, to ask some questions about how Bloodlines came together and the group’s creative process.

Artist Highlight: Revocation

Key Release: Chaos of Forms (2011)

With so many bands vying for the limelight these days, it’s hard to craft a musical identity that stands out from the crowd. Boston thrash act Revocation has managed to not only be heard over the din, but is starting to turn heads with an eclectic brand of metal rooted in guitarist David Davidson’s studies of jazz and Classical music at Berklee College of Music. Founded as a trio, Revocation unleashed its debut album Empire of the Obscene in 2008, and landed a second haymaker to the jaw with Existence is Futile only a year later. The band’s sophomore effort gained the attention of major publications such as Spin and AllMusic, who awarded the album a stellar 4.5/5 and called it “one of the best pure metal albums of 2009.” Loudwire even went so far as to name the band’s 2009 single “Dismantle the Dictator” one of the fifty best metal songs of the 21^st century.