Ocean Architecture – Animus (2012)

Like a blast of raw, progressive energy from the college town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee comes a group paving the way for aspiring musicians. Drenched in technical prowess and a desire to rewrite standards in mainstream music, MTSU quintet Ocean Architecture has risen in a remarkably short amount of time to become an intimidating presence. Members Nic Giordano (drums), Kyle Standifer (guitars), Joe Dorsey (keyboards), Eric Hodge (bass), and Parker Deal (lead vocals) employ a dazzling array of instrumentation and musical progression while retaining deep influences of hardcore, prog rock, heavy metal, and even classical and electronic. Founded by Giordano, Standifer, and Dorsey in the latter half of September 2010, the group soon expanded to include Hodge and, in late March 2011, Deal. Says Standifer, “The formation was really natural. It just kinda felt like we were supposed to be in a band together…(laughs). We came up with our first song (Metatheory) in like two and a half hours.” After a series of experimental jam sessions, the group realized their songwriting potential and set offto define themselves musically. This proved to be a rather tough challenge, as they attempted to channel influences such as Dream Theater, Isis, August Burns Red, Muse, Periphery and Explosions in the Sky, as well as several genre-bending acts like Between the Buried and Me, Daft Punk, Devin Townsend, and Tesseract. “It’s an interesting challenge funneling all of our influences into one single sound,” says Dorsey. “We have so many different aspects to cover, we try not to rob our creativity by limiting what/who we ‘need’ to sound like.” The result is an explosion of creativity, a moving flowing organism and a sound truly their own.

1. Metatheory, 06:23
2. The Last Stand, 08:16
3. Plato’s Cave, 09:01
4. Velvet, 05:24
5. Columns of Time, 07:33
6. Steel Ecstasy: Columns Collapse, 06:07
7. Animus Part I, 09:16
8. Animus Part II, 10:59

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