Ocean Of Sorrow



2005 - Mystery Of Winter

Official Site

Reviews:

Doom-Metal.Com
(april 2006)

Ocean Of Sorrow is a young Russian band debuting on the new label Solitude Productions. On this first album they deliver melancholic doom in the style of the new generation from the early 1990's.

'Mystery Of Winter' contains six tracks of light-sounding doom/death, with the emphasis on (twin) guitar melodies as the driving force. This is supported by keyboards, blackish screams, soft vocals by the female guitarist, and rather thinly produced drums. Lyrics are both in English and Russian.

They finish the album with 'Without God', a Katatonia cover. That band is one of the big influences, but the cover isn't the best song on the album. Ocean Of Sorrow's style is best represented by the first three tracks, where the best melodies are located. It is here that the band shows that it is capable of producing interesting additions to a sub-genre that seems to be going through rough times creatively.

While there are a lot of rough edges and lesser parts to this album, lovers of underground romantic/melancholic modern doom are encouraged to give it a try. If Ocean Of Sorrow continue in this direction, they may come up with an excellent own approach to the sub-genre in the future.


Reviewed by: Oscar Strick

Behind The Veil
(february 2006)
(8/10)

This is definitely a Russian invasion! Ocean of Sorrow, after their debut demo CD back in 2002, they strike back with their debut album with the title "Mystery Of Winter" which was released through Solitude Productions. As you can understand the band comes from Russia and musically they love to be in the doom metal paths and they did their best in order to prove that they deserve to have this label. On this album you will have the chance to listen to six tracks and about forty minutes of pure doom metal with some death metal elements too. I don't know why, but lately more and more bands combine these two genres of metal. Some of them did it really well some other not. Definitely Ocean of Sorrow is in the first category. They have achieved to combine almost perfectly all their influences and finally to create a very good debut album. A very interesting thing is that the band has used dual vocals, death metal male and female ones. Last but not least, we have a very good and above average production and sound. For sure the fans of doom metal will have a lot of things to adore in this release and I recommend it to you. Listen to it and you won't forget it!

http://www.geocities.com/behind_the_veil2001

Metal Storm
(december 2005)
(8,5/10)

Ocean Of Sorrow is a new Doom/Death band from Russia. Like Intaglio they’re also signed on Solitude Production, a really cool Russian label specialized in Doom Metal. This album, “Mis-tery Of Winter” is their first one and if I cannot deny that there are some really nice things on this release, it’s obvious that there are also some little problems but in general it’s a good promising first album.
The album is solid, the songs are well done and the general dark ambiances are nice for a first release. There are only six songs but they’re not linear and yes it’s not a bad doom Metal at the end. The songs are well structured but it’s however really classic. Let say that a Doom Metal fan will probably enjoy this release but I’m not sure that he will find something new in the release. But we have some female vocals sometime and at least it gives something more to the music…
However there are also some problems. First the two singers (the male like the female) are a bit average sometime. They’re not bad but it’s obvious that they’re singing on their first album of the band and it will probably better with some more time and experience. Also, the production and above all the sound of the guitars are not so good. Actually I hate this kind of really bad recording and effect that give the feeling that the guitars aren’t real instruments and that it is actually a ma-chine that produce this sound. It’s not the worst recording ever but it sounds so mechanic that it is hard for me to love the music (I’m talking about it sonorities here)… too bad…
This band and their first album aren’t bad however I hope that they will have the luck to have some better means of recording and by god please put me some real overdrive on those gui-tars. If it’s possible then the next album will be something a lot more efficient but just have a look on this first release, it deserves a try…

http://www.metalstorm.ee