The Ocean will soon be releasing a new 10″ EP by the name of “The Grand Inquisitor“. The new outing will feature the three ‘Grand Inquisitor’ tracks (“The Grand Inquisitor I: Karamazov Baseness”“, “The Grand Inquisitor II: Roots & Locusts” & “The Grand Inquisitor III: A Tiny Grain Of Faith“) from the bands latest release, “Anthropocentric“.
A fourth previously unreleased seven minute track completing the conceptual arc, “The Grand Inquisitor IV: Exclusion From Redemption“, will also come with the EP. The band have gone all out for the limited edition release, pressing it on split two-colored vinyl with two different cover artwork variants.
All of the details for the outing, which will be made available in early April through the bands own Pelagic Records, can be found over at Theoceancollective.com. Meanwhile, the band themselves explained the concept for the songs featured on the release, offering:
“The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor finds Christ in medieval Seville during the Spanish Inquisition, healing the sick and raising the dead. He is captured and sentenced to be burned at the stake. The Grand Inquisitor, who questions Christ, views his presence as an encroachment in his own work: by rejectingthe Devil’s 3 temptations, the grand inquisitor argues, Christ is consciously and willingly depriving humanity of happiness – for the sake of freedom, which entails suffering.
The grand inquisitor, representing the church, claims to have “corrected Thy work, and founded it upon miracle, mystery, and authority”; corresponding to the three temptations of the Devil – under the false guise of Christ himself. Humanity is not meant to ever be free, the grand inquisitor argues. By denying man freedom, him and his church are providing for his happiness.
The lyrics of “The Grand Inquisitor IV – Exclusion From Redemption” make reference to the grand inquisitor’s ideas and to his fierce speech about Christ’s naive notion of humanity and his uncompassionate ideal of freedom.”
