Band:	Oceans Of Slumber
Album:	The Banished Heart
Style:	Progressive metal, Extreme progressive metal
Release date:	March 02, 2018
A review by:	RaduP

01. The Decay Of Disregard
02. Fleeting Vigilance
03. At Dawn
04. The Banished Heart
05. The Watcher
06. Etiolation
07. A Path To Broken Stars
08. Howl Of The Rougarou
09. Her In The Distance
10. No Color, No Light [feat. Tom Englund]
11. Wayfaring Stranger

It's extremely rewarding to see a band you've been following finally reach its potential you knew they had. That is the case with Oceans Of Slumber.

Most of you are probably familiar with them, considering how much attention Winter, their previous record, has received. Winter was great, but it did have its shortcomings, mostly as far as the flow of the album was concerned, but not limited to that. Now, the band has released The Banished Heart, and it seems like they overcame their flaws.

Oceans Of Slumber were already flirting with extreme metal influences on previous records, but on The Banished Heart they are brought more to the forefront and better executed. We get to hear many more growls and blast beats as a consequence. While the compositions are not overly intricate, the instruments (and the vocals) weave into each other, creating some powerful contrasts, especially against Cammie Gilbert's sultry vocal performance, arguably the main focus of the album, or at least it should've been had it not been slightly buried in the mix.

The album works much better as a whole, losing many of the flaws that Winter had, like the placement of that "Nights In White Satin" cover. The Banished Heart has a cover on its own, this time of a traditional folk song, "Wayfaring Stranger", but this time fittingly placed as the closer. Right before that, though, comes the album's emotional climax, a duet between Gilbert and Tom Englund of Evergrey fame. All throughout the album, both the songwriting and the performance are much more effective at conveying the album's emotional journey. Sure, the 65-minute-long trip might get a little tedious and it does have some moments like "The Watcher" that feel like they take up too much space, but more often than not, these fainter moments serve to give it's album a less monotonous pace.

The Banished Heart fulfilled most if not all hopes that Winter created. One can only hope for an even better follow-up, but, for now, The Banished Heart is Oceans Of Slumber at their most emotional, inspired, and consistent.