What we know about the upcoming Being As An Ocean album

The growth and evolution of California melodic hardcore group Being As An Ocean is expanding immensely, not only in terms of sound and style, but through visuals, storylines and acting as well. The band’s fifth album is titled Proxy: An A.N.I.M.O. Story, and is set to release September 13.

With the release of the videos for new track “Play Pretend” as well as “Alone” off the band’s deluxe version of fourth album Waiting For Morning to Come, frontman Joel Quartuccio has proved himself to be a strong actor for the ambitious main character behind the concept that is just getting started with Proxy. Quartuccio has opened up about the story behind “Play Pretend”, stating:

“This overarching idea concerning artificial intelligence called A.N.I.M.O. that was designed and created by character in “Play Pretend” to become the last-ditch effort on humanity’s behalf to try and save the world and bring it back to a point of viability after essentially WWIII. The setting is roughly 2100-something and in bringing back to viability, the normal progression of the gray moral artificial intelligence to logically remove the majority of humanity from existence. Because we were the biggest problem.

Where we find the creator in the story is that he wakes up from a malfunctioning sleep-suspension bed, and he’s realizing the set of what he’s set into motion. 

He’s dealing with the loss of his daughter and paralleling that, the loss of the things he loved about humanity that he was blind to when trying to just fix a problem. It’s a story of hubris and self-sacrifice.

And this is not the end: This is the setup for a world which we plan on expanding, looking forward to later releases. Hence the semicolon subtitle. We are tied to work on the saga scope.” 

Musically, what we can expect from the album judging from the style of “Play Pretend” is a blend of hardcore, rock and electronic elements – similar to their last album but with even more experimentation, and more clean vocals from Quartuccio to contrast the powerful belts of Michael McGough.

Check out the tracklist and video for “Play Pretend” below, which you can listen to on your favorite streaming service until the release of the full album.

PROXY: AN A.N.I.M.O. STORY TRACKLIST:

1. Intro (The Envoy)
2. Play Pretend
3. Find Our Way
4. Brave
5. Tragedy
6. Skin
7. Interlude (Circuit Breaker)
8. B.O.Y.
9. Low Life (Ode To The Underworld)
10. Demon
11. Watch Me Bleed
12. See Your Face
13. A.N.I.M.O.
14. Outro (What It Means To Be Human)