Oceans of Slumber : "Where Gods Fear to Speak"

 Here is the Texas band's 6th album, which finds them to streamline their Southern Gothic take on symphonic metal. There is a trade-off with death metal backing vocals on the opening track, The beauty and beast dynamic continues on "Run From the Light" which features guest spots by the vocalist of  Dark Tranquility. Cammie's vocals are very raw in production, almost to the point of making it sound like karaoke in the mix, though they blend a little better going into "Don't Come Back From Hell Empty Handed". I understand why she is pushed to the front of the mix, but if you listen to this album through headphones the approach reveals equal strengths and weaknesses with her as the singer. 

Cammie is a capable enough vocalist, though lacks a metal edge, with her soulful approach. It also feels like it is painting the band into a position where they are only writing power ballad-like songs, to give her a chance to sing softer. She can belt it out, but her voice even then lacks the power of a Chris Cornell or even the grit that Taylor Momsen applies when fronting her band to work in a harder rock environment much less a metal one that requires more of this. This causes in turn the songs to feel somewhat similar dynamically. Her voice works better on the verses of "Wish", but it finds us back in that soft-to-loud formula and it's a less aggressive song, meaning she puts limits on where the band is capable of going. Granted from a marketing perspective having her as a singer does gain favor in certain media channels. 

They continue down this middle road with "Poem of Ecstasy".  The first half of the songs makes me think of what Royal Thunder might sound like if they went in a more commercial direction. This comparison ends when the growled vocals, It sounds like her voice is layered over this in an attempt to do more of a spoken thing. The blast beats and more aggressive guitars, when juxtaposed with the gospel vocals lose some of their edge. "the Given Dream" works in many ways other songs before it had not hit the mark as solidly, but her vocals melodies helped out where the album might have fallen into meandering otherwise. So the jury is still not out on it with four more songs to deliberate upon.

"I Will Break the Pride of Your Will" finds her voice bright where melancholy might be more fitting. For a band that markets themselves as being dark, it's a little too happy for me. It is well written enough, I just wish their producer made different choices. It is not until we to "Prayer" that it hits me how this more soulful style of singing might be an entryway for Sleep Token fans into something closer to actual metal. Moonspell's lead singer has a guest spot on the song,  and Moonspell is certainly an actual metal band. Even though "Impermanence of Faith" finds the band at their heaviest, the first half of the song is more of a ballad. 

Speaking of ballads the darker melancholy of Chris Isaak's 'Wicked Game" is not allowed to flourish when it is stripped down to become a piano ballad. There are already enough covers of this song out there that capture what it does better. Overall, they are a skilled band capable of making good music, not a fan of the production with the guitars often taking a back seat to the vocals. I will give this album an 8, I preferred the production on "Starlight and Ash" but fans of the band who enjoyed that album should like this one as well. It drops September 13th on Season of Mist. 

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the Howling Void : "the Triumph of Ruin"

The album cover doesn't lie. What is inside sounds just like that images appears on the 5th full length from this one man project out of Texas. The album opens with a weird mix of tremolo picked guitar running over a track that is otherwise doom paced to create a unique dynamic tension. The vocals are sung , but low in the mix and used more as a passing texture. At the onset there is more of a black metal feel to "Looming Darkness" though the melancholic doom undertones are still present  and eventually rise up and over take the black metal feel.  This album is well produced with a really big sound. The vocals stay in a similar place as they did on the opening though slightly more commitment. The guitars swell into a powerful chug comings out of the tremolo trill. The instrumental "the Nine Worlds Wept" finds the symphonic elements coming to the forefront and creating a balance of atmosphere against the big cinematic metal backdrop. The clean vocals come further to the forefront to create a Opeth or Agalloch like vibe on "Fenrir" . This album is much more mature that what I remember of the previous albums. Doom begins to take over as the tremolo guitar begins to appear less frequently.

"Where Once a River Flowed" doesn't find any more new concepts being introduced. Things are dropped down to a more atmospheric place as the tension builds. The string arrangements on this song really compliment it. Things build back up in the manner you expected they would. I did not expect for it to drop down into just ambient synths so there are some twists and turns that don't always lead to the most obvious places. Things close out with the moody atmosphere of "Silence After the Storm". It never builds into anything heavy, which is fair enough since that would follow too much of a formula. This is a beautiful album, it walks the line between black metal and doom, with the doom side winning out so if you are a fan of either genre then this is worth a listen. A word of warning to those who prefer the harsher side of either genre , this album really cares about it's lushness which might not have the edge you are looking for but I'll give it an 8.5 and see how it grows on me.