OCEANS OF SLUMBER
Where Gods Fear To Speak
Two years since “Starlight And Ash” caused the cessation of their residency with their record label and subsequent move to Season Of Mist, OCEANS OF SLUMBER return with their latest album “Where Gods Fear To Speak”. It’s a huge record, and it takes time to explore. The words of Cammie Beverly, singer for the past decade, in her interview with Female Fronted Power‘s Angela Ambrose recently sum it up perfectly. “There’s a lot to it (“Where Gods Fear To Speak”): storylines, depth, layers, not just in the storylines, but in the songs themselves. So many musical elements. I hope everyone enjoys the album!”
Enjoyment is a guarantee with this band, whose progressive metal collects in sonorous soundscapes that has drawn their fans into their intoxicating web over the course of their six albums. Unlike their label, I was as captivated by “Starlight And Ash” as I was by their previous albums, including “Winter”, “The Banished Heart” and 2020’s self-titled “Oceans Of Slumber” release. The continual organic evolution of the band makes them exciting, their desire to improve, expand and progress with every release one of the key attractions. If you wanted to listen to the same thing, there are thousands of bands who you could turn to. But if the cerebral challenge is more your thing, then this is a band who should be bookmarked for every release.
Whilst the previous record eschewed the thumping heaviness of previous releases, “Where Gods Fear To Speak” reactivates the darker, heavier elements of the band. With two debutants in guitarists Alex Davis and Chris Kritikos alongside Cammie, husband and founder member Dobber Beverly and bassist Semir Özerkan, there is a fresh vibrancy to the band’s sound. Bringing in guest vocalists in Dark Tranquillity’s Mikael Stanne and Moonspell’s Fernando Ribeiro adds to the newly laid down death growls that Cammie has developed on this release.
But it’s no repeat of anything that the band have done before. Bringing in Joel Hamilton to produce at his Audiovision Studios in Bogotá, Colombia has proved a fine decision, for this is OCEAN OF SLUMBER at their most vibrant and explosive. And we haven’t even started on the construction of the ten songs that are offered here, or the astonishing vocal qualities that Cammie brings to the album. The combination of spine-crushing heaviness and brooding melancholic once again scores hugely, waves of emotion ripple through the blistering bursts of harrowing death metal style – just spend time with the bruising “Poem Of Ecstasy”, a rollercoaster of a song that ebbs and flows across it’s six-and-a-half minutes, dropping from ethereal passages to bludgeoning devastation. Eight listens into this release and it is still catching me unawares.
Can you pick out highlights on an album crammed full of magical moments? Probably not, for each listen brings something new to catch the ear. The sheer velocity of “Run From The Light” pits Cammie’s crystal-clear clarity against Stanne’s violent aggression, whilst “Prayer” sees Ribeiro providing the foil in majestic style.
It is cinematic in feel and construction. Conceptually a dystopian western or post-apocalyptic survival movie, described by Dobber as “somewhere between The Handmaid’s Tale, The Dark Tower and Cormac McCarthy”. Dark in motive and feel, it’s the soundtrack to that in no uncertain terms. There is despair, dramatic segments that uplift and then crash down in frantic chaos, and a whole lot more. Intricate passages blend with pulverising power, such as the epic “Don’t Come Back From Hell Empty Handed”. It really is a release that gives and gives and then gives some more.
And when the movie is closing, OCEANS OF SLUMBER throw in a version of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”. Given a total revamp, its tone fits in perfectly with the rest of the songs here. Brooding, malevolent and sinister, there are lighter moments to appreciate, even if the tone remains somber and melancholic. Penultimate track and the closing moments of the story sees us reach the flawless “The Impermanence Of Fate”. A message that you can change things and work around setbacks, the delicate piano/keyboards contrast with thunderous riffs, allowing Cammie to switch effortlessly between ethereal vocals and demonic death growls in an eruption of sinew splitting segments.
Ultimately, OCEANS OF SLUMBER have created an album of superior quality to nearly everything else released in 2024. Artwork, the long-forgotten element for many, simply adds to the whole release. Giannis Nakos’ cover work captures the album content magnificently.
Defiant, stronger, and better than ever, “Where Gods Fear To Speak” is likely to hit those top ten lists come the end of this turbulent year. It took time to unlock but it’s impossible to stop playing now. If it isn’t in my top five, it will only mean that there are five even more incredible pieces of art coming. I somehow doubt it, for this will take some topping.
Paul Hutchings