After an extended hiatus, the visionary post-metal band returns for a heavy and immersive evening at Lille VEGA, showcasing tracks from their forthcoming album, Solaris.

The release marks The Ocean ’s twelfth studio album and is scheduled to arrive in September via the influential record label Pelagic Records.

Having explored more electronic textures on their previous album, Holocene (2023), Solaris signals a return to the massive, organic, and atmospheric post-metal soundscape that has established The Ocean as one of the genre’s defining forces. To underscore this homecoming, the band has once again teamed up with acclaimed Swedish producer Jens Bogren, who also worked on some of the group's most celebrated and iconic releases, Pelagial and Phanerozoic I & II.

While Holocene concluded with a bleak vision of an uninhabitable, barren Earth ravaged by technological collapse, Solaris picks up exactly where its predecessor left off. Lyrically, the album follows a group of survivors abandoning Earth aboard a celestial rescue vessel, embarking on a desperate search for new, unexplored territories. The result is a sharp existential critique of human hubris and the relentless pursuit of power.

The album was recorded at the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin—the very rooms that witnessed the creation of David Bowie’s Low and "Heroes", Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life, and Depeche Mode’s Construction Time Again.

Join The Ocean for an intergalactic post-metal journey at Lille VEGA on December 18. It promises to be an evening where science fiction and searing social commentary converge in towering, thunderous compositions.

Support by:

The concert is supported by Liveurope. Liveurope is the first pan-European initiative supporting concert venues in their efforts to promote emerging European artists. Liveurope is co-funded by the EU's Creative Europe programme.