The band launches its assault May 21 at Wreck Room in Toronto and will play clubs across the U.S. and Canada through mid-June.

Other venues in The Ocean’s sights include Lambi in Montreal (May 23), The Church in Boston (May 24), Knitting Factory in New York City (May 26), Reggie’s Live in Chicago (May 28), The Masquerade in Atlanta (May 31), The Beta Bar in Tallahassee, Fla. (June 3), and The Emerson Theater in Indianapolis (June 22).

Openers for the trek, which features a number of co-headlining dates with Kylesa, include Catamenia, Lair of the Minotaur, Withered, The Destro and Intronaut.

Tickets for some shows are available at Ticketmaster.com.

The Ocean came together in 2000 when guitarist/songwriter Robin Staps moved to Berlin to realize his vision of what a metal band should be. Three years and one self-released album later, the group unleashed its debut, Fogdiver, to rave reviews in the German press.

Over the next four years, The Ocean would release two more albums, Fluxion and Aeolian, experiment with its sound by reducing the lineup to the classic drums/bass/guitar/vocals arrangement, and tour extensively across Europe.

Precambrian, released last November on Metal Blade Records, is a concept album based on the early days of our planet, “when mother earth was a hostile and uninhabitable place devoid of life and reigned by fire, sulfur and streams of red, glowing lava.”

The two-disc set features a 22-minute, mini-CD entitled Hadean/Archaen and a full-length CD with the title Proterozoic, with both names referring to successive geological eras.

Guest artists on the album include Caleb Scofield (Cave In, Zozobra, Old Man Gloom), Nate Newton (Converge, Doomriders), Dwid Hellion (Integrity), Tomas Hallbom (Breach), Eric Kalsbeek (Textures) and musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.