Today, HM is proud to offer an exclusive track-by-track breakdown of Ocean of Another’s debut full-length record, I Need to Shed This Skin, out today via Metalsound Music.
One of Croatia’s most exciting heavy outfits, Ocean of Another have racked up over 2 million streams with their hotly received duo of EPs, One Day This Pain Will Subside and Loneliness of My Kin, and the band continues to showcase a deft blend of thunderous percussion and ethereal melodic injections in their new record.
Vocalist Dorian Pavlović shares a detailed and vulnerable breakdown of each track’s inspiration, which ranges from personal conviction to cultural ideologies. If you like what you see, check out Ocean of Another on Instagram and listen to I Need to Shed This Skin on Spotify.
The Strangling Fruit”
Inspired by the book series The Southern Reach and the movie Annihilation, “The Strangling Fruit” deals with the themes of pain, identity and refusal to change. “I’ll use the pain to stay the same” is a direct quote from the song, and it perfectly encapsulates what this song is about. Although we are in a tremendous amount of pain, we choose to stay the same because change is petrifying. It’s easier to stay in the familiar hurt than to venture into the unknown, even though the unknown might hold the keys to our salvation. Our lives are molded in such a way that change is inevitable. We can either embrace change and rediscover ourselves and life itself,
or remain frozen in pain and slowly waste away. “The Strangling Fruit” is both death and the rebirth. It’s you who have the power to choose.
“Sweet Edge of Grief”
Often times it is really hard to explain to ourselves the mechanism of our trauma, especially if that trauma was inflicted by the people close to us. To protect ourselves we will invent this narrative where we are to blame. To truly heal we need to learn how to integrate that trauma and process it fully. If we are unable to do so we are choosing to forever stay in the feedback loop of that pain. Sadly, for a lot of people, that is the only way to validate themselves.
“Paper-thin is the Skin”
These lyrics encapsulate the song perfectly: “I need to shed this skin and Fix the broken kid that lives within.’’ That was one of the most profound epiphanies I had on my own therapy sessions. Despite my being a fully grown adult, emotionally I still felt like a little kid. My own trauma made me stuck in my childhood unable to process the grief and pain embedded in my soul as a little child. I’ve planted most of my seeds in such a wretched ground and was truly surprised they kept growing into moldy and rotten fruit. The moment I figured out that I am now the grown up my inner child needs I began to truly heal.
“Ghosts of Broken Oaths” feat. Leiya (GreyNoise)
Ghosts of Broken Oaths tackle the theme of structural perversion at the heart of desire. Often, we sacrifice love and our loved ones as we strive to achieve goals that we believe will give our life meaning. In doing so we are indeed missing the point that love is the meaning. That our loved ones aswell as love are never in the way of our self actualization. This song is a conversation between two lovers. One is trying to leave and sacrifice love on the altar of eternal glory, the other is trying to show him that without love no quest is truly worthy of undertaking.
“Villainy Wears So Many Masks”
I truly resent anyone who will use your pain to try and manipulate you into doing their own bidding. But that’s the world we live in. Religion, media and the system will exploit your pain and fears to sell you stuff aimed at supposedly fixing that black hole in your chest. But that hole just keeps getting bigger and bigger, muddying the waters so much that you are no longer able to see the surface and you drown.
“Ragged Spines”
Yearning for intimacy is one of our fundamental desires as humans. As we age and embrace our own mortality sexual desire becomes huge drive that shapes our goals in life. We use our bodies and sexuality to feel alive and to explore our shared humanity. But where do we draw the line between what’s “normal” and “abnormal” in terms of sex and intimacy? That’s why we wanted this song to feel like dark room filled with pulsating desire we wanted it to feel like that last moment before doing something that feels wrong and right at same time. It’s up to you to decide what’s what.
“Chewing on Tinfoil”
Shocked and appalled by Epstein files and all the horrors that surfaced, I had a strong urge to do something. Everything I wrote felt hollow and performative. My goal was to bring awareness to how the victims must have felt. I never wanted to write the song to make myself look like a tough mf who would kick their asses. To rage a bit and be done with it. These are horrible acts that were supported by systemic indifference, and to a certain degree still are.
Art, in my opinion, should be used as a tool to shock and bring us out of collective apathy.
That’s the reason why I decided for this song to step into the shoes of a monstrous predator who presents his heinous acts as love. He just wants to be loved, and he cannot fathom what’s so bad about letting yourself be loved by him. I am satisfied with how sleazy and horrible this song turned out, but at the same time I have a hard time listening to it and have no idea how I will perform it live.
“Fistful of Ashes feat. KNTXT“
Bloodstained children’s tears. That’s the image burnt into my brain from all the conflicts that have been raging for as long as I can remember. Gaza made it impossible to look away and yet we did nothing as society. We are still doing nothing. I am well aware that Gaza isn’t the only conflict that we should address, but it’s definitely the most media exposed one. We all saw what was being done there yet we were unable to do anything to change that. Our souls are being burnt away piece by piece by the money hungry assholes who have absolute disdain for human life. I may not be able to change anything by writing a song about it but I can at least try and keep the flame burning instead of succumbing to apathy and consumerism.
“Cells within Cells”
We envisioned this album as journey into human soul. What it means to be human? How to be human in a system that tries to deny you your soul? What is identity? What is a soul? That’s why we chose to close this album with a Blade Runner themed song. Most of the lyrics are directly referencing Blade Runner 2049, although both movies deal with basically the same ideas. Last sentence of the song and the closing statement of the album is a quote from Blade Runner 2049: “Cells within cells within cells within one stem interlinked.” To remind us that that’s what we all are. We are one.
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