Oceans of Slumber
The Banished Heart
Do not allow the very slow, very
quiet opening of The Banished Heart
lull you into complacency; Oceans of Slumber generate oceans of sound; a sound
that, while not unique, is certainly unusual in the metal world. We've gotten past the point of women
vocalists being unusual, and it's not overly obvious even that singer Cammie
Gilbert is African-American. What makes
Oceans of Slumber distinctive is the ability and even desire to whipsaw from
the heaviest of heavy, pounding out death metal vocals and speed metal drumming
to Gilbert's arena-quality vocals reminiscent of the ladies of Heart or Amy Lee
of Evanescence backing her efforts with that same death and doom metal or
quieter passages of reflective mood and lighter sound.
Some bands have a consistency of
sound, it works for them, and they do it very well album after album, year
after year (ZZ Top, Megadeth and others come to mind). Others wander all over various genres looking
for a sound that pleases both themselves and their fans (Kiss, I reject your
disco phase as some sort of aberration).
Oceans of Slumber do neither, confidently using the best elements of
metal and heavy rock to achieve whatever each song needs. Whether it's the 100% death metal in the
middle of "At Dawn," the more lyrical and majestic "Fleeting
Vigilance" or the much quieter "The Banished Heart" that more
directly recalls Evanescence’s less anthemic tunes.
Hailing from
Houston, Texas, bandmates Gilbert, Dobber Beverly (drums and piano), guitarists
Sean Gary and Anthony Contreras and Keegan Kelly on bass (the last three being
responsible for all non-Cammie vocals) create some extraordinarily tight tunes
- engaging, melodic (mostly) and genre-expanding. It’s probably cheesy, but I gotta say it:
don't sleep on Oceans of Slumber. Give
them a listen. Preferably several.
