Utne Reader Winter 2016

As years pass, it’s only natural for some of us to idealize the past. Nothing will ever surpass the first time we jammed our favorite bands and of course, one common complaint is that music nowadays simply lacks the emotional foundation it had in one’s favorite era. The problem becomes even more frequent with progressive metal…

Oceans of Slumber is a progressive metal band from Texas that surprised me. Winter, an album ironically named after something not experienced in Texas, is an album of strange character coming from one of metal’s premier labels. Rather than fitting into any of the expected “surefire” categories produced by most labels these days, Oceans of Slumber walks its own path. Their sound is best described as a combination of melodic death, doom and black metal influenced by the Century Black roster circa 1998. Winter blends that with a sadboy metal and an alternative rock base making the album beautiful, mysterious, and oddly chaotic. It’s also really good.