Oceans of Slumber Deliver Stellar New Album with Starlight and Ash

If you are looking for some more music to add to your playlist, I would highly suggest adding Houston Prog-metal band, OCEANS OF SLUMBER’s new album Starlight and Ash. They will be dropping the album from Century Media Records that was produced by Joel Hamilton and mastered by Maor Appelbaum. This is the band’s fifth studio album and when you are listening to it and taking it all in you can hear the progression of their lyrics and music as you move from one song to the next. This is not an album that sounds like a carbon copy of the album they released a couple of years ago. You can hear the growth and pain that they may have endured and experienced as they made their way through a pandemic world as we all have. There are so many things going on within each song that you get lost in it as you are listening to the lyrics and the music with each track. This album is a great showcase of the evolution of the band and makes you wonder if there is anything that they cannot take on and do successfully when they get to work on material for us.

This Starlight and Ash album is not as heavy and fast as some of their last album; however, you can hear the evolution and advancement they have worked hard to get to and continue releasing amazing new music for us to listen to and experience. From the moment the first track The Waters Rising starts you hear the drums being struck by their amazing drummer Dobber Beverly. Following that is the keys and Cammie’s amazing voice that starts to mesmerize you as she begins singing the lyrics of the song. They have an amazing video for this song that is out now for you to enjoy before the album drops this next week. They waste no time with kicking off each song as one ends another song kicks off quickly leaving you on the edge of your seat trying to figure out what the next song will be bringing for you to ingest. This is an album that has been slowed down some with a little bit of a dark and twisted sense of a troubled storyteller that has experienced some of the worst thing’s life can throw at you.

Another one of the songs that they have released a video for is the second track on the album titled Hearts of Stone, which starts off with some intense synthesizers going from one ear to the next followed quickly by Ms. Beverly coming in with some more of her amazing lyrics and eerily haunting voice with many high and lows, where she showcases her truly powerful and dynamic voice. The song has a great groove that is led by Dobber and his euphony of powerful drum strikes as they carry the song to the end.

They follow that one up with another monster of a song with a powerful video titled The Lighthouse, which has some great guitar sounds with a familiar twang of the strings and some blues-sounding licks. The guitar players Santos and Lucien were great at bringing out some of their tricks with sounds like I have not heard on their albums before, with country and blues sounds mixed in with a bit of gothic sounds.

About halfway through, the album kicks off with the song titled Salvation and it starts off with some guitar chords and commanding drums with a little bit of a haunting sound from Cammie as she delivers the words of the song that leaves you waiting for the next line. Following along with the story that she is telling us so that we can experience it in our own sense as she unfolds it for us and as it nears the end, she is joined by the band members lending their voices to her to help drive it home. Another one of the songs that really grabbed my attention was their cover of the song made famous by The Animals, House of the Rising Sun, which I have heard many times from many different bands. Even though I have heard it so many times I will tell you I have never heard it the way they did it. They took it back to the roots of a female perspective of the song. Even though they took it back to its roots they took this song and made it their own and not like anything I have ever heard before. It was truly a great cover that just consecrates how much of a dynamic range they have.

You can really tell that Oceans of Slumber has been using their time away from touring since the pandemic to write some amazing songs and really expand their music farther than anyone could have imagined. It really shines so brightly on this new album that there is not anything that they will not be able to conquer. I believe Oceans of Slumber is here to stay for a long time and will be continuing to show and leave us in awe with everything they do and put out just from the depth that they have shown us thus far in their career. Every song that I have listened to on this new album has had me up and moving with the music and holding on to every note and word that they have played and sang on it. This album has such a wide range of styles that they used it to really draw you in while you are listening. I believe that we are only seeing the beginning of what this band can really do and accomplish as they continue working with each other. They are about to go on tour to support this new album and I for one cannot wait until I get to see them play a live show.

The album is available to pre-order, HERE, and can be found in the following formats: 

Ltd. CD Digipak
black LP & LP-Booklet
300x transp. light blue LP & LP-Booklet available at CM Distro Wholesale EU, CMDistro.de and EMP
300x dark green LP & LP-Booklet available from the band
1000x transp. orange LP & LP-Booklet available in the US
Digital album

Review by Craig and Kylee Youngblood