This shall be the third release of Oceans Of Slumber I’m reviewing, and this self-titled album is definitely far more extreme, on both ends of the spectrum, to what they have released before.
Opening track “The Soundtrack To My Last Day” starts off slow and melodic, then has a long acoustic guitar mid-section that is so sweetly sung over by Cammie Gilbert that when the drums and distorted guitars kick in with new guitarist Alexander Lucian’s death vocals, it’s like a slap in the face to wake you up to the fact they aren’t an acoustic folk band from Houston, Texas.
Following on a similar path, “Pray For Fire” has long sweeping vocal passages while second new guitarist Jessie Santos and Lucian give the song a much heavier overall feel with their strong riffs over Dobber Beverly’s vicious kick drums and blasting snare.
New member Semir Özerkan’s bass line for “A Return To The Earth Below” really holds the song together through the various drum fills and ever changing guitar riffs, while Mat V. Aleman’s keyboards take on an ethereal quality, especially when the Moog is employed, but it’s when Gilbert’s emotive voice rises with anguish that you get chills.
Instrumental “Imperfect Divinity” is full of haunting keyboard melodies as the simple bass line has guitars interjecting the odd lengthy sustain and strummed note.
Immediately taking no prisoners, Lucian’s growl and the manic drumming make the heavy guitars sound even heavier on “The Adorned Fathomless Creation”, but then just to throw in the needed OoS twist, the guitars become all melodic to match the harmonious clean vocals that worked perfectly over the heavier riffs too, with Lucian’s lead being rather spectacular, before ending the song in the heaviest way possible.
“To The Sea (A Tolling Of The Bells)” opens with a beautiful Lucian lead accompanied by Beverly’s piano before Aleman adds the required atmospherics that the guitars and drums effortlessly wash over.
Antimatter vocalist Mick Moss adds his voice to “The Colors of Grace”, and together with Gilbert their clean vocals give the song a poignant quality over the near Spanish guitar riffs easily making the vocals even more of a focal point than normal.
Starting out with some piano and then joined by a relatively laid back drum tempo, other than the kick drum that is, as Beverley’s feet are running at a manic pace on “I Mourn These Yellow Leaves” during both the clean and death vocal sections, while the guitars laconically tremolo through their slow riffs, before approaching the ending with Gilbert’s near whispered vocals accompanied by piano and a gentle lead guitar outro.
“September (Momentaria/Those Who Come Before)” is a beautiful piano instrumental interlude with some guitars and keyboards to bolster out the sound.
Remaining slow, but with a nasty edge, “Total Failure Apparatus” uses the drums to assault you, while the guitars slowly roll on under the soaring vocals and guttural growls.
Taking things even slower with a very minimalist approach is “The Red Flower”, where Gilbert’s vocals are what the entire song revolves around, with background guitars and subtle tempo keeping on the drums.
They end the album with a great rendition of Type O Negative’s “Wolf Moon”, with Özerkan’s bass giving a great homage to Steele’s original and while Gilbert’s voice shall never be as low, she certainly drops is as low as she is able to give it an eerily sultry feel.
It’s easy to say that I knew I was going to enjoy this album because I enjoyed the previous two, but in this instance it’s not hard when the album is also heavier, more aggressive and yet still softer than its predecessors.
(8/10 Marco Gaminara)
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