THE OCEAN Premieres "Siberian Traps" Tour Documentary

The Ocean recently released their 8th full-length album via Metal Blade Records (CD / digital) and the band’s own Pelagic Records (vinyl); “Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic” is their most successful album to date with the highest chart entries in the band’s history, including a phenomenal Top 10 entry in the Official German Album Charts.

Now, the band is releasing a stunning tour documentary from their 2019 Siberian Traps tour, which the band shot themselves. The clip remind us of the beauty of traveling at a time when so many of us are stuck at home dreaming about it. Scenes from a distant memory of tour life and places that many bands won’t ever see. Set to the instrumental version of their song “Triassic,” The Siberian Traps 2019 Tour Documentary was filmed by the band throughout their train-hopping tour of Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Japan, and was edited by Alex Kraudelt. Their melodic post-metal combined with the dream-like visuals makes for an immersive and haunting experience. Presented by CVLT Nation, the documentary can be viewed below.

Robin Staps comments: “One of the greatest adventures with this band was the 5 weeks ‘Siberian Traps’ tour last summer, which started in Belarus, Armenia and Georgia, then took us on a 10.000km ride from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, all across Russia and Kazakhstan from west to east, before concluding in Japan. We lived on trains for weeks. We had to leave half of our gear behind at the airport of Nur-Sultan, Kazachstan. We experienced the solitude of lake Baikal, the solemnity of Armenian monasteries, the exuberance of Georgian hospitality and the silent anonymity of Shibuya crowds. Some of these moments were captured on film, by band members. We had no camera guy with us, nor any crew: this tour was just us. Our sound guy had second thoughts and bailed a week before the tour. Alex Kraudelt compiled these self-made snapshots into a silent documentary, after our return home. We found the instrumental version of ‘Triassic’ to be the perfectly fitting soundtrack: also because parts of it were recorded during our one week stay in Yerevan, Armenia with traditional flutes and woodwinds player Hayk Karoyi Karapetyan, whom you will see in the opening and closing section of the film. The song itself was inspired by my own backpacking trips through the Middle East 15 years ago, long before the current wars ravaged the region.”

Read our review of “Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic” at this location, listen to our interview with Robin Staps here and purchase/stream the album here.