The Ocean Team Up with Katatonia's Jonas Renkse for New Single, Stream via Consequence of Sound

On the heels of their massive, sprawling "Permian," The Ocean Collective is unleashing another piece of their highly anticipated upcoming album: "Devonian: Nascent" makes its debut today exclusively via Consequence of Sound. Proving again why they are one of the most respected groups in the contemporary world of post- and prog-metal and beyond, "Devonian" takes a completely different turn than their previous single, in part due to the vocals of Jonas Renkse, of Swedish metal giants Katatonia. The collaboration has long been in the making, explains Renkse: "Robin approached me for a guest spot already in 2005, and I really wanted to be part, but at that time we were in the studio ourselves recording The Great Cold Distance so I felt I had too much on my mind. We have met after that and talked a little about doing something and now it finally happened. Devonian: Nascent became a mammoth track without ever losing its initial melancholy."

Adds The Ocean mastermind, Robin Staps, "We sent Jonas the track, and what we got back as a "demo" was almost identical with what ended up as the final version on the record. Jonas has a perfect and intuitive understanding of our music, there was no need to explain anything. He came up with his own vocal parts and lyrics, and everything just fit perfectly from the start. Katatonia's The Great Cold Distance was an important album for me and for The Ocean, it was one of the first albums where heavy, low-tuned guitars and clean vocals next to one another were actually working out for me, personally. It was an album that made me reconsider my opinion about clean vocals in metal, and that forged my own desire to look for a vocalist for The Ocean who could also deliver cleans."

The track starts off with delay-soaked shoegaze-y melodies and swelling strings, then contrasted by crushing heavy riffs as the next eleven minutes unfold. Renkse's powerful yet immensely catchy vocals truly shine within the unusual context of the song, gluing the worlds of The Ocean and Katatonia together in a way that surely makes sense for fans of both bands.

Phanerozoic I is now available for preorder, along with meticulously designed merch bundles, something for which they've become known. Phanerozoic is out on November 2nd via Metal Blade Records (CD / digital) and Pelagic Records (vinyl), with merch bundles available for preorder now via MetalBlade.

Stream "Devonian"
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