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| The Ichthyologist | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | February 3, 2009 August 13, 2009 (Translation Loss re-release) | |||
| Recorded | August 2008 | |||
| Genre | Doom metal Post-metal Progressive metal | |||
| Length | 63:48 | |||
| Label | Independent Transition Loss Records | |||
| Producer | Matt Bayles | |||
| Giant Squid chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| blabbermouth.net |    link |
| Music Street Journal | (positive) link |
| Sputnikmusic |   link |
| Metal Review | link |
The Ichthyologist is the third studio album by post-metal band Giant Squid. It was released on February 3, 2009, independently by the band, limited to 1,000 copies in special packaging. The first 50 pre-orders also include a real Broadnose sevengill shark tooth collected by singer Aaron Gregory from the large tunnel tanks at Aquarium of the Bay at San Francisco, California, where he worked at the time as a professional SCUBA diver. Fans started receiving pre-orders in late January 2009.
The album is a concept album about a man stripped of humanity and left alone with nothing but the sea in front of him. He adapts in inhuman ways to survive the shock of human loss and total emotional tragedy, becoming something else entirely in the process. It has been greatly implied that these adaptations were in the form of transformation into a marine seastar like mutation, adopting their abilities of regeneration, and strange anatomic features, such as possessing two stomachs, and light sensing eye-like organs on the tips of their appendages. This story line was continued in the follow-up 2011 EP, Cenotes, and is hinted at in the 2014 release, Minoans.[1]
The album was re-released on Translation Loss Records featuring four completely re-mixed songs as well as new artwork by Sam Kieth.
- ^ Written by band member and lyricist, Aaron John Gregory