Phanerozoic Part One Paleozoic (2018) — I: Cycles
Trying something new this week. Looking at one of my favorite metal albums by one of my favorite bands. The Ocean are a Berlin-based progressive metal group (no, not like Rammstein, that’s a different stylistic movement) and part of the ongoing resurgence in metal of the concept album. This album represents a conversation between the Earth as an unfeeling substrate and Life which depends on it as the two track their relationship through the Paleozoic Era.
The Phanerozoic is the current Eon, within which fit all three Eras seen above. The Paleozoic was its first Era; it was followed by the Mesozoic Era which is when reptilian dinosaurs dominated the Earth. While the Paleozoic Era is not what created the food webs we recognize, it is the first time we see the astounding diversity and mobility of life we recognize today. Before this Era (and therefore before this Eon), life was mostly simple multicellular organisms, like coral and shit — like whatever floated by you is what you ate, there were no predators or complex food webs how we think of them before the Phanerozoic Eon.
The Cambrian Explosion changed that, ushering in the first period of the Paleozoic Era.
1) The Cambrian Explosion
Cambrian Period Hallmarks
- Surge in phytoplankton numbers → Sharp jump in O2
- Erosion →Oceanic minerals → New body plans → Complex food webs
- Jawless invertebrates emerge, dominate food webs
- Life exclusively in Ocean
- O2 crash → Cambrian-Ordovician Extinction
Awakening
No words yet. Quiet minimalist intro with simple descending notes that crescendo in, invoking the presence of something not previously there. More substantive ringing bass in the back reinforces this presence before going gentle again, indicating an experiential weight that gives way to a momentary serenity, like something you might experience underwater. Personally, I am reminded of the sound of a Thai gong, used in meditation, which might invoke the qualia of awareness.
Something has woken into life and is settling into this new experience. Not a single organism but a super organism — the sum total of all Life collectively. What was it like before you were born? That’s all this thing knew before this gentle emergence.
2) Cambrian II: Eternal Recurrence
Life’s First Day
And similar to the relatively quick evolution of predators, food chains, and competition for resources, this gentle emergence quickly adds a layer of long distorted chords overlaying it, still echoing the rhythms of the ocean to which this early Life is subject but more pronounced as it is no longer restricted to the stability of the ocean floor, venturing up into the ocean itself.
And here, in the single most vibrant explosion of Life in the history of the planet, rather than exploring the richness of our Life and how precious it is, we lyrically begin with a voice that is not that of Life’s. We begin with an omniscient narrator asserting Life’s smallness, an affirmation of the biotic cycles of which we find ourself in a single iteration, captured in a “long minute.” And in context of this cosmic exiguity we find “every pain and pleasure / every friend and enemy / every hope and every error / every blade of grass and every ray of light.”
If the life that’s newly emerging is experiencing itself on the scale of cosmic minutes then that same life only awakens into an awareness of its exiguity on the scale of hours, at noon — the peak of the Sun’s position in the sky as it crosses your subjective meridian. Every moment thereafter is a march toward an inevitable biotic night. The concept of time doesn’t yet carry experiential significance.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Phanerozoic Part One Paleozoic Essay —
I: Cycles
