WHERE OCEANS COLLIDE

"Where Oceans Collide" is the 4th full-length studio album by German progressive metal act Dark Millennium. The album was released through Massacre Records in August 2018. It´s the successor to "Midnight in the Void" from 2016 and there´s been one lineup change since the predecessor as drummer Christoph Hesse has been replaced by Andre Schaltenberg. Dark Millennium formed in 1989 and initially disbanded in the mid-90s after releasing two demos and two full-length studio albums. They returned to the scene after 23 years and released "Midnight in the Void" in 2016.

"Midnight in the Void (2016)" was an independent release and it featured Dark Millennium shooting in many musical directions and although the quality of their output was generally high, the album was a bit inconsistent in style and also a bit too long for its own good (70 minutes long). It seems like the band have felt the same way about the album, as "Where Oceans Collide" is about 20 minutes shorter than its predecessor, and predominantly features shorter and more consistent in style tracks. The music style is progressive death/doom but Dark Millennium have their own distinct sound, and death/doom may not be the most correct label to put on their music, although some of the core elements of the band´s sound come from that style of music. There is one exception on the album, and that is the 11:44 minutes long closing track "Across Oceans of Souls", which is a classical music composition played on keyboards/piano.

Lead vocalist Christian Mertens has a raw snarling vocal style, which is quite intense and convincing, and the musicianship is generally on a high level on all posts. The sound production is professional and pretty well sounding too, so "Where Oceans Collide" is a good quality release on most parameters. The songwriting is consistent in quality, but it´s generally not a release featuring many standout tracks and upon conclusion "Where Oceans Collide" seldom reaches excellence although it is overall a decent release. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)