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Oceans of Night - The Shadowheart Mirror CD (album) cover

THE SHADOWHEART MIRROR

Oceans of Night

 

Progressive Metal

2.63 | 5 ratings

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Windhawk
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
2 stars Oceans of Night is first and foremost the creative vehicle of Scott Mosher, with vocal contributions from one Scott Oliva. The Shadowheart Mirror is their debut effort, and while it has several weaknesses it does hold some promise as well.

The music presented here is a rather primitive one as far as progressive music goes. Few changes of pace, sound and style; there's hardly any truly sophisticated elemenst utilized either - no subtle dissonances or disharmonies, nor instrumental details adding slight touches of variations to the proceedings. Instead, the main focus seems to be on melodramatics and stark contrasts.

The stylistic expression blends AOR with a slightly sophisticated version of power metal - vintage Bon Jovi meets vintage Helloween if you like. Singalong melodies and chorus parts, dark, distorted guitars contrasted by light, floating synth textures and powerful very typical metal vocals on top - think a less refined Brude Dickinson for the latter. With a few dreamier passages thrown in for good measure - hence the ambient descriptions given by the band.

The basic ideas are rather good for a fun, simple prog metal joyride. But poor production - at least as I hear it - is a general weakness. The guitars, apart from the soloing passages, sounds undefined and noisy. The vocals appear too be just slightly out of tune at times - probably not noticeable by most listeners though, as I know I am picky about this one. And at last the programmed drums sounds like just that, one-dimensional and mechanical. Which to some extent sums up this album too. With better mix and production this could have been an enjoyable effort, but as far as I'm concerned the weaknesses present distracts too much.

When that is said: I'm close to 40 years old, have listened to such vast amounts of music that my standards are somewhat extreme at times - and 20 years ago I know I would have found this album fascinating. Oceans of Night most certainly aren't in the same league as acts like Riverside or Ayreon, but if a less sophisticated romp through the genre with distinctly old school metal vocals and slight AOR leanings sounds like fun, you might just come to like this production.

Windhawk | 2/5 |

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