Year: 2024
Total Time: 56:21
Label: Season Of Mist
There are moments in Metal music when the bands seem to fall “victims” of the very genre they aim to embody. This need to “play faster, heavier, more progressive” often overshadows any creativity that might lie behind a new album.
OCEANS OF SLUMBER’s composers seem to be falling into this trap. The American’s sixth full-length album entitled “Where Gods Fear To Speak” was recorded at Audiovision Studios in Bogota, Colombia and is expected to be officially released on September 9th, 2024. Having already listened to this album several times, it feel a pretentious attempt by the band to become “as Progressive as possible”, to such an extent that the admittedly good moments are lost in a quagmire of ideas.
Nevertheless, in “Where Gods Fear To Speak” one can find three almost exceptional moments. These, in order of appearance on the album, are as follows:
The song “Don’t Come Back From Hell Empty Handed” which is a composition with almost all the virtues of the band unfolding before us! Cinematic, emotional, a song that absorbs you, without the technical complexity of the compositions overshadowing the entire creation. Only negative thing (as on the whole album), is Cammie Beverly’s sufficiently annoying growls, which try to imitate the outbursts of Mikael Akerfeld of OPETH or even better “Covenant” era by MORBID ANGEL. But in vain…
The album’s second standout moment is “I Will Break The Pride Of Your Will” with Cammie’s voice being quite up front in the mix and the end result being literally chilling, especially when combined with some synth passages during the song.
Finally “Prayer” is a dynamic, dark, atmospheric song and the participation of our beloved Mikael Stanne of DARK TRANQUILLITY on vocals, gives a beautiful journey with changes in voices and harmonies.
In conclusion, ‘Where Gods Fear To Speak’ is by no means an album that will make a special impression on the band’s fans. Despite this, OCEANS OF SLUMBER remain a very interesting case of a band, and each one of their releases will get our interest, regardless of the final compositional result…
Rating: 5/10
Editor: Antonis Braikidis
Related Link: OCEANS OF SLUMBER – Official Page
