Oceans of Night – Domain (2011)

Listen to Domain while you read
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I would have expected more from this project. Ambient music mixed with heavy metal made me hope for a metal Pink Floyd… something like a Dark Floyd!

But reality isn’t always giving you what you want, and Oceans of Night isn’t Dark Floyd.

It is a good album with a lot of cool moments, but with more meh moments.

Guitarist and composer Scott Mosher drives the album with his guitar riffs and leads, while Scott Oliva reminds me of Nils Rue of Pagan’s Mind, which isn’t a bad thing in itself since he is a great and respected singer, but I just can’t sustain listening to him for too long.  This is only a matter of taste though.

It seems that Scott Mosher also wrote the drums on this album, although they were actually recorded by someone… That would explain the lack of essence in the rhythm section of the album. The kit is minimalistic, kick on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, with crash cymbals or hi-hat. Of course, he ventures into the wild sometimes, but never too far from the path.

Domain begins with an epic : Domain! Fuck yeah! Epic song = title song! Seventeen minutes of goodness that made me hope for the best. However, at around half or two-thirds of the song, you realize nothing’s been really going on. Of course, it’s ambient metal… and sure it is ambient but…. well it just seems that something is lacking.

The other songs on the album follow each other, all bearing similar dresses. And the choice of words is doubtful in my opinion : The View to You, So Near Yet So Far… I’m not an English language expert, but it just seems weird to me.

Oceans of Night should take some more time on composition thus making their songs deeper, musically, and more meaningful, and stray from the path a bit more, try new ideas. Also, the band would benefit from a real drummer in its ranks, writing his own parts, and maybe also other musicians than mr. Mosher.

The album is good to pass the time, and to put as background music to whatever you might do at any given moment. A more thorough listening of this will result in a waste of time, unfortunately.

I still have faith that Oceans of Night can become Dark Floyd, though. Next time maybe?

Oceans of Night official site

Oceans of Night facebook page

-D