Being As An Ocean

Hailing from Alpine, California, the melodic hardcore band Being as an Ocean fuses atmospheric drift with sudden aggressive surges. The group surfaced in 2011 and edged toward broader recognition when its second album, the Billboard-charting How We Both Wondrously Perish, appeared in 2014. Subsequent efforts continued sharpening the visceral post-rock and emotional hardcore approach on the self-titled Being as an Ocean in 2015, Waiting for Morning to Come in 2017, and Proxy: An A.N.I.M.O. Story in 2019. After issuing an expanded reissue of the 2012 debut Dear G-D, the outfit unveiled its sixth album, Death Can Wait, in 2024.

Established in 2011, the initial lineup comprised vocalist Joel Quartuccio, guitarists Tyler Ross and Jacob Prest, bassist Ralph Sica, and drummer Shad Hamawe. Their music blended post-rock textures with melodic hardcore intensity, pitting Quartuccio’s harsh vocals against the instrumental backdrop to produce a striking contrast. The debut release, Dear G-D, arrived that same year via InVogue Records.

By 2013 Prest and Hamawe had exited, citing fatigue with constant touring, and were succeeded by guitarist-vocalist Michael McGough and drummer Connor Denis. McGough’s addition supplied both six-string work and clean vocals that countered Quartuccio’s anguished delivery with soaring lines. The revised roster made its recorded introduction on How We Both Wondrously Perish, which entered the Billboard 200 plus the rock, hard rock, alternative, and independent Top 25. The follow-up eponymous album in 2015 repeated those chart achievements, while 2017’s Waiting for Morning to Come, issued on Impericon, returned the band to the Independent Albums listing. The 2019 release Proxy: An A.N.I.M.O. Story featured the single “Play Pretend” and embraced a more expansive, arena-rock orientation.

Two standalone tracks, “Lost” and “Catch the Wind,” surfaced in 2021. That year founding members Ross and Sica departed, reducing the group to the duo of Quartuccio and McGough. A deluxe edition of Dear G-D, complete with bonus material, emerged in 2022. In August 2023 Being as an Ocean premiered the title track from its sixth studio album, Death Can Wait, which reached listeners in February 2024.