Album Review: Oceans of Slumber – Oceans of Slumber (Century Media Records)

Launched via 2013’s Aetherial debut, but truly blossoming upon the arrival of vocalist Cammie Gilbert for 2015’s Blue EP and the following year’s Winter full-length, Oceans Of Slumber re-emerge in 2020 with the weight of expectation bearing down on their shoulders. The result is Oceans Of Slumber, an album that masterfully redefines the band’s sound for a new era while bringing their conceptual core into sharper focus.

With the planet in a state of mid-pandemic chaos, Oceans Of Slumber will be launching their new album into a changed world. No one knows what the future will look like, least of all for musicians and other artistic people, but one thing is for certain: heavy music will continue to inspire, uplift, enlighten and enrich, and Oceans Of Slumber are firmly and proudly at its forefront: the perfect progressive metal prescription. It’s out on September 4th 2020 via Century Media Records.

This very well could be Ocean of Slumbers big moment. The big release that has the wider metal audience acknowledging their brilliance and seeing them becoming somewhat of a more household name.

This, their self-titled release clocks in at over 70 minutes long and takes the listener on a deeply affecting journey. One that blends dark melodies, crushing heaviness, epic emotions and thought-provoking ferocity. Each track a lesson in just how huge and expansive metal can be without resorting to tropes that involve overt technicality and puzzling shifts.

Mind you, that’s not to say there isn’t a ton of progressiveness to Oceans of Slumber’s new album. The first double of Soundtrack To My Last Day and Pray for Fire makes that exceptionally clear.

Deeply detailed like you wouldn’t believe, the album only gets better with A Return to the Earth Below. Another simply stunning vocal performance from Cammie Gilbert puts this track up there as one of the most grandiose on the album.

After such an exhausting effort, Imperfect Divinity allows a certain amount of chill time with a cold and distant ambient effort. Before the band make sure they remind everyone that they are still every bit the metal band they have always been with The Adorned Fathomless Creation. A much more frantically intense effort that has many a peak and valley along the way.

So much going on, so much to take in and the album’s not even half way done yet.

A triple of gorgeous efforts in To the Sea, The Colors of Grace and I Mourn These Yellowed Leaves (Cammie is simply phenomenal) keep this album super strong and as intense as it could possibly be. Before September (Those Who Came Before) gives us another mellow and atmospheric effort. Leading to the album’s latter part with Total Failure Apparatus bringing the progressive meatiness to the table for everyone to gorge on. The Red Flower near transcendent in just how epic it feels and Wolf Moon (Including Zoanthrophic Parania) an exhausting exhale of catchy groove and thrilling heaviness.

It’s simply unbelievable that Oceans of Slumber have been able to pull this off. Let alone just how well it has turned out. If this doesn’t turn a ton of heads, there’s something very wrong in the music industry.

Oceans of Slumber – Oceans of Slumber Full Track Listing:

1. Soundtrack To My Last Day
2. Pray For Fire
3. A Return To The Earth Below
4. Imperfect Divinity
5. The Adorned Fathomless Creation
6. To The Sea
7. The Colors Of Grace
8. I Mourn These Yellowed Leaves
9. September (Those Who Come Before)
10. Total Failure Apparatus
11. The Red Flower
12. Wolf Moon (Including Zoanthrophic Paranoia)

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