OCEANS OF SLUMBER

Update 11/12/2020 - I've been relistening to my favorite records of 2020 and I genuinely believe I dropped the ball here in my original rating. This record is easily a 4 and, if you are already predisposed to liking doom metal, you will probably regard this records even higher.

---- Oceans of Slumber are an up-and-coming American progressive doom metal act known for infusing their sound with a healthy dose of Southern United States soul courtesy of female and Texas-raised lead singer Cammie Gilbert. Between the band's previous effort, The Banished Heart in 2018, and this year's eponymous release, nearly every member of the group had departed with the exception of Cammie and her partner, band founder, and drummer Dobber Beverly. With Cammie and Dobber firmly in creative control, Oceans of Slumber delivers a very focused and an arguably less riff-heavy variation on their previous sound.

The record kicks off with obvious Opeth inspired, though definitely not derivative, folksy and haunting acoustic guitar infused songs. As the album progresses, it traverses southern rock, death metal, symphonic, and doom metal territory. The primary focus of the album is, of course, Cammie's vocal work and her lyrics detailing her struggles, specifically the specific kinds of alienation she feels from American society at large.

The music on this record can often be very challenging, for better or worse. On a personal level, I find the doomier portions to be somewhat tedious, 'The Red Flower' being the most extreme example of this. Still these guys are one of the more unique acts in progressive metal today and this record deserves your attention.

Oceans of Slumber have been on my radar for a while, since their sophomore album "Winter", which already showed the band's great potential in combining the hard gloominess of death/doom with the sophistication of progressive metal and the accessibility of atmospheric rock/metal. Their third album "The Banished Heart" marked an even more decided evolution towards progressive territories, albeit among uncomfortable patches of heavy, sluggish death/doom metal. It's fair to say that, for their self-titled fourth album, I was expecting a sort of "big bang" evolution: the definitive maturation of Oceans of Slumber's progression away from their doom/death origins and into a new, exciting form of extreme progressive metal. Alas, my expectations went somewhat disappointed. While "Oceans of Slumber" incorporates a few new influences and brings the band's sound in some new directions, the progression has been considerably smaller than what I had hoped for.

Generally speaking, the album lives off two types of songs. One the one hand, there are the doomy progressive epics that we have come to expect from Oceans of Slumber: multi-faceted mammoths that go through several different parts and tempos, and combine furious death/doom moments with deep growls, blast beats and heavy riffs, with more delicate, acoustic passages with clean vocals. Unfortunately, I feel the juxtaposition of styles is not as smooth as it could be. For example, one trick the band uses often to switch between styles is to simply stop playing and then continue with a different section after a short break. This strikes me as somewhat lazy songwriting. Most importantly, it leaves the impression that these longer compositions are more a disjointed patchwork of influences than coherent, well-constructed pieces of music. This impression is accentuated by the fact that the contrast between the melodic parts and the doom/death moments is quite stark, especially because Oceans of Slumber still retain a very raw and heavy doom/death sound, which is hard to amalgamate with the more atmospheric/progressive influences.

The other type of songs present on "Oceans of Slumber" is perhaps where the band shows the more decisive evolution relative to their previous albums. Tracks like "A Return to the Earth Below", "To the Sea", and "The Colors of Grace" are more concise, ballad-like songs where the music is more linear and accessible and vocalist Cammie Gilbert only relies on her magnificent clean voice. I will never complain about anything that gives Cammie's amazing clean vocals more space, but nevertheless these songs strike me as somewhat oversimplified in terms of structure and songwriting, to the point of risking to fall flat occasionally. Take for example "The Colors of Grace", which features a duet with Antimatter's singer Mick Moss. When I read that Moss was due to feature on "Oceans of Slumber", I was quite excited at the prospect of hearing his deep, dramatic voice mingled with Cammie's majestic singing. But the vocal lines on "The Colors of Grace" are actually so flat and unremarkable that all my anticipation was quickly put to rest as soon as I listened to the track. In fact, sadly "The Colors of Grace" could just be one of the less interesting songs on the album.

My review has been quite critical so far, but that's not because I don't think that "Oceans of Slumber" is a good album. To the contrary, there are many things I like on this record. Cammie's voice is truly excellent - one of the best in metal -, and there are many vocal melodies that are simply a joy to listen to. The album also features some great drumming by Dobber Beverly and some dark, dramatic atmospheres that are captivating and interesting. The guitar work is perhaps a tad unremarkable and in the background, which is surprising considering the presence of two guitarists. But overall there are many parts of the album that I truly enjoyed, especially on tracks like "A Return to the Earth Below", "The Adorned Fathomless Creation", and the beautifully slow doom of the "The Red Flower". Type O Negative's cover of "Wolf Moon" is also a very tasty add-on, Ocean of Slumber's rendition being almost superior to the original.

But simply put, for an album running well over the 60 minutes mark, there are just not enough moments of brilliance to keep me entertained for the whole duration. The longer tracks are a bit unfocused and would benefit from some fat trimming and a more careful and considerate balancing of the different influences. The shorter songs suffer from the opposite problem: there's not enough "meat" to make them interesting beyond the instant likeability factor of Cammie's clean voice. Perhaps the turbulent times that preceded the writing of the album (the band changed two guitarists and the bass player between this and the previous album) have something to do with the somewhat tentative songwriting and lack of a more decided evolution towards new sonic territories. But I have to say that, in light of my expectations and the progression shown on their previous records, the album leaves me a bit worried about the future of the band.