We’ve been looking forward to German collective The Ocean’s forthcoming album, Pelagial for a while now. While it’s not a concept album, per se, each song is named after a layer of the ocean, and it gets darker and heavier as the 53-minute album progresses. The album was initially conceived as an instrumental album while vocalist Loic Rossetti was battling heath issues, but he returned to sing on the album. The lyrics are based on Stalker, a 1979 science fiction film. However, the album will come with both instrumental and vocal versions. Spin is streaming the instrumental version, and it’s pretty spellbinding. Although the audio player seems a little wonky, in that the album doesn’t play straight through, the album will appeal to anyone that likes postrock instrumental music, and should definitely be listened to as a whole.

Pelagial will be released on April 30 on Metal Blade.