OCEANS OF NIGHT - DOMAIN
AMBIENT
Metal To Infinity
Oceans
Of Night is an American band formed by multi instrumentalist Scott ‘The
Ambient Mind’ Mosher who released, before the birth of Oceans Of Night, four
solo albums throughout a period of 10 years. Recording and mastering his own
stuff, Scott is a well gifted guitar player as well as taking control over the
keyboard parts and bass lines seem no problem at all for him. Actually I never
heard of his solo project before, Scott contacted me and asked if I was
interested in making the review for Oceans Of Night’s second and new CD
“Domain”. Checking out a few sound files on the Internet, there was
something I really liked on this band so I definitely wanted to hear the entire,
new album. Meanwhile, a promopack sent by Scott himself reached my postal
address. Inside the package was an extremely high standard CD tucked, including
a nice, dark looking and good informative booklet. Lay-out as well as the inlay
of the CD got my absolute approval.
Scott
in charge for all bass, guitar and keyboard works but who’s the singer you
might ask yourself. I was quite surprised to see on the info sheet that the
frontman of Oceans Of Night is Scott Oliva, the frontman of US Power Metal band
Wind Wraith. I really like this band but I don’t know for sure if they are
still active or not. I hope so because they’ve made wonderful efforts like
“The Fortune Teller’s Gaze” and “Minions Of Metal”.
Check out these albums and be a witness of the beautiful high pitched
throat of Scott Oliva. Big surprise to me seeing that he teamed up with Scott
Mosher to work out “Deep Horizon” released in 2006. The man behind the drums
listens to the name Alan Smithee who’s a total stranger to me.
What
Oceans Of Night’s new album “Domain” has to offer is quite a lot to offer
due to the wide range of surprising / unexpected elements they used on it. While
listening to all of the songs, they took me by surprise because of creating
compositions in a pretty strange but original way. Their music can be added
under the topic Progressive Rock / Metal music mainly but to be more
specifically about these guys’ style of music I can’t avoid the term
‘ambient’. Loads of ambient passages are observable so actually Oceans Of
Night takes Progressive music to a new level. The entire concept turns out
somekinda weird or unexpected to me, it just requires an adjustment – you have
to get used to, that’s for sure. You feel right from the start that the band
musically begins to experiment which lead to some unusual moments. This way of
musical experience takes me back into times and think of bands like Ambeon,
Ayreon, Star One, The Gathering and stuff but once again, Oceans Of Night goes
even further… due to adding
ambient elements to the concept they do cause a scoop.
“Domain”
has been mixed and engineered by Joey Vera (Fates Warning, Armored Saint) while
Scott Mosher composed, arranged, performed and recorded all music. No reason to
complain about the sound quality, the guys just did a great job releasing
“Domain” on a very orderly manner. First song / title track has a running
time of 17:39 which is extremely long to keep the listener’s attention intact.
This piece produces multiple musical varieties –
melodic and dreamy with a dark feel, do you dare this long musical
experience? I hear a good band featuring a brilliant singer Scott Oliva who
sings a bit in the vein of Zak Stevens (Savatage / Circle II Circle), a real
master on bass, guitar and keyboards named Scott Mosher and also, the most
mysterious pawn in the game, a highly appreciating drummer Alan Smithee! It’s
hard for me to get used to those ambient passages, it feels rather weird than
attractive but who am I to judge a band if I don’t know the real essence of
this type of music. My knowledge in Ambient music is nothing so…
Oceans
Of Night is just a real good Progressive Rock / Metal able to surprise me over
and over again. Good guitar driven tracks featuring nice melodious parts with
awesome vocals are ‘Don’t Look To Me’, ‘Divisions Of Time’ and
‘Ghosts Of The Past’. Keep in
mind that the rest of the tracks are worth to check out as well – people with
an open-minded vision on Progressive Metal will be beaten with tons of
unexpected twists and turns. Watch for their official homepage at: www.oceansofnight.com
/ www.scottmosher.com
/ http://www.theambientmind.com/
/
http://www.myspace.com/scottmosher
My Points: 86 / 100 (Review by Stefan)