"Pleistocene" begins with a different vibe from the previous tracks. It's a little jarring at first but it doesn't take long to wrap you up in the moment. It begins with a single pulsing synth note that feels like an alarm going off. A few second later bass, synths, and what sounds like a piano join in and reinforce that note while the drums play in the space between. Shortly vocals join, backboned by strings; the pair adding a slight middle eastern vibe to the mix. The singer is singing with clean vocals, and the recipe works as he sings the opening line: "we all can only take so much, some more than others. And our individual tolerance for stress, for loneliness, is so subjected. But there's no tolerance at all for hopelessness." As this passage progresses the strings start joining the drums and interplay among the vocals, creating a truly gripping moment.
After the first lyric the music begins to swell into a more traditional sound for The Ocean, with growling vocals, and that crushing guitar tone. It's a great moment. At ~2:07 the music returns to the verse, but it's a more intense version. There are weird guttural, whispered, and menacing vocals just under the singer's vocals, and it feels like the volume on the instruments are dialed up a few notches. Then it's back to the chorus at ~3:02. The strings are louder and like the second chorus, this moment just feels more intense than the previous one.
The music transitions to a new moment at ~3:34 to a slower chord change before transitioning again to a stripped-down version of the music featuring just guitars, bass, drums, and growling vocals singing, "And no one could tell the moment when you disassembled, when your restless heart froze, and you sank below the ice eyes wide open." Crushing vocals backed by a crushing moment. This moment continues on before it switches to one of my favorite moments in the current set of releases at ~4:56 where it speeds up to a killer Black Metal moment complete with that wailing gasping black metal vocal style. It truly creates a climactic moment, and this moment is sucked away into a breakdown-like moment at ~5:50 that the band rides on until the song ends. The riffing is so heavy here, and you'll catch yourself headbanging right along with each beat.
"Pleistocene" is a heavy-hitting track that transitions in and out of each section effortlessly, creating a sonic landscape that you can experience several times and still discover something new. It holds its own with the other releases and only gets me more excited to take in this album once it drops. If you haven't heard this track yet, you should get on that, you're missing out.
"Pleistocene" is a heavy-hitting track that transitions in and out of each section effortlessly, creating a sonic landscape that you can experience several times and still discover something new. It holds its own with the other releases and only gets me more excited to take in this album once it drops. If you haven't heard this track yet, you should get on that, you're missing out.
If this is your jam can pre-order Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic here.
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