Review by Jeger on August 24, 2024.

Oceans Of Slumber - a contemporary dark cinematic metal collective out of Houston, Texas, USA - home of big oil, big trucks, and, well, everything big. So, it's only natural for the music to be larger-than-life as well. With Oceans Of Slumber, the musical parallels between themselves and other bands are divided by a mile, and not even the mightiest of epic metal groups can hold a candle to their talent: epic compositions, striking audiovisual, and musicianship on a world-class scale. And vocalist Cammie Beverly? Forget about it… One of the very best singers within the realm of epic metal whose contributions rank her right up there with the likes of Floor Jansen, Tarja Turunen, and Simone Simons as some of the world's very best vocalists. Every band member’s talents shine like the way streetlights shimmer down the side of a sexy new black Cadillac in motion, but that hardly means anything if the music fails to captivate. Realistically speaking, talent goes only so far…

Oceans Of Slumber’s discography is one that stylistically spans just about every influence you can think of from death metal to prog, and every album is designed to take the audience off guard, as each one takes on varying forms: heavy as fuck over here and super-melodic over there, but always a grande affair. On September 13, 2024 Oceans Of Slumber released their Season of Mist debut, Where Gods Fear To Speak. Just look at the fucking cover art! And take in the souped-up cinematic production quality as you experience the majesty of 'Run From The Light' or 'Don't Come Back From Hell Empty Handed'. Both sound like they belong in some kind of Avatar-like, otherworldly fantasy epic, but for me, the ride is already over. This is some crudely-bolted-together music, like duct-taping a bunch of big screen TVs together that all have different movies on and it's like you don't know which one to actually watch. Each track is like four or five tracks packed into one - a dark cinematic salad of sorts…

There's no point in even trying to break any other tracks down because it's all such a mess. Just imagine walking into a destroyed museum or that Cadillac getting T-boned at the intersection. You don’t have to incorporate every great idea you think of into an album, otherwise, it's like when Homer Simpson designed a car, remember that? What we have here is a group of kids slapping a bunch of stickers on that car, as if it didn't already look ridiculous. Enthusiasts with an ear for what's pure, what's balanced or what's not just Masturbation should run like hell. Yeah, there's some death, some black, some prog and some really epic (there's that word again) shit going down here, but it's all so convoluted. Who would listen to this thing again? People who like movies like Avatar maybe…

I just watched an album for the first time! Looked great, but the soundtrack could've been much better. With Where Gods Fear To Speak, Oceans Of Slumber show the world how talented they are, and that statement is heard loud and clear, but maybe it's time for a little something called fundamentals, because without those, the music is just not appealing to anyone except for maybe yourself. A musical accomplishment to be both proud and ashamed of is Where Gods Fear To Speak - a double-edged sword of an album - a real catch 22 as they say. Perhaps I'm missing the whole point, and I'm okay with that because my ears hurt…

Rating: 5 out of 10