Oceanborn

Talk about putting your best foot forward, pulling out all the stops, or creating your own manifest destiny. Chicago’s Oceanborn has certainly done so with their debut album Hidden From The World. From the lyrics and music to the production to the CD packaging to the online web comic book as a visual guide to the concept, Oceanborn is a first class act.
If Dream Theater has an heir apparent or possibly a modern rival, you might find it in Oceanborn. They certainly remind of that seminal prog outfit, maybe with a dash of Evergrey. They remind of early Dream Theater at times, perhaps Metropolis Part 2.

With that comparison made, the band offers a rich mixture of traditional melodic heavy metal, symphonic elements (from actual strings, including viola, violin, and cello), bits of classical and jazz, in a nice progressive wrapper. One thing Hidden From The World is not is progressive power metal. While heavy at times, there’s no real crazy galloping moments here. On the vocal side, singer Lance Ferrel’s voice and vocal arrangements remind of Michael Bellamy and Muse, but not causing Oceanborn to sound like the UK band. His intonations are subtle, going from lightness to more direct determination. However, in this mix, he often barely rises above the music; yes, you can hear him, but Ferrel seems to be fighting to stay above water. A good example is the song Of Despair, a heavier number.

Otherwise, the music of Hidden From The World is terrific: strong melodic progressive metal. Some songs are brisk, a bit heavy, but offering interesting interludes or segues within like The Descent and Lead Astray. The former has this kind of jazz rock fusion vibe that starts about half with drum, piano, and guitar. The latter, at the midpoint, drops down to classic piano segue with Ferrel’s vocals lilting above. That piano and vocal arrangement leads In Shadows, possibly displaying Ferrel best vocal performance.

Another excellent feature of the band and the album is the fine guitar work from Christopher Lee and Dominick Camillo. The leads are spry, creative, and well though out without being pretentious, captivating both the aspiring or seasoned player or simply delighting the non-playing listener, such as myself. Notable examples come at the conclusion of The Descent, These Darker Things, and A Part of Nothing, quite epic. Conversely, on the longest, most expansive track, Reprise, the lead is more subdued, at least at first listen. It sneaks up on you, seems to stay even with the rest of the goings on, until it strikes some high notes, then you take notice and play the song again to capture it’s nuances.

Like any good progressive music album, there should be lots more of those nuances, depths to explore, that keep you both interested and intrigued, and you’ll find it within Hidden From The World. So I’ll cease my average meanderings about this album and encourage you buy and explore it for yourself. Easily recommended. - Danger Dog Music Reviews

Before the advent of the internet and especially back in the old vinyl days, an album release was often a BIG event complete with huge posters for record stores, in-store appearances to generate a lot of buzz and the albums themselves were HUGE projects, often with gatefold jackets, great artwork and liner notes galore explaining everything about the magnum opus in your hand (think of Yes’ grandiose Tales From Topographic Oceans as a good idea of what I’m talking about). More than just packaging, albums (especially from progressive rock bands) often told a story and immersed you completely in the world of the story they wanted to tell. I keep hearing about how people miss that feeling of holding something meaningful like that in their hands but, as someone completely immersed in the world of online music, I’ve been hoping for an internet-based equivalent to that older more tactile way of experiencing a great album. Perhaps new and ambitious bands like Chicago’s Oceanborn can lead the way.
For their debut album, Hidden From The World, Oceanborn has pulled out all he stops and have created a full-blown concept album about a man’s quest to reunite with his love after her suicide, even to the point of killing himself and rescuing her from hell. The band has even put out a web comic book to illustrate the story (which you can see on their website here). The story is fairly simple and the lyrics are a bit overwrought but the music is not. The album scope is epic and has a ton of orchestral elements, heavy symphonic metal textures and a huge sonic palette that incorporates elements from jazz, classical, alternative and even pop music. There’s also a real depth to their sound, often provided by a piano (still one of the best keyboards to bring drama to music) and great detailed production from Eyal Levi (Trivium, The Contortionist, Black Dahlia Murder, Daath, etc.) Every element from the artwork to the overall production is just top-notch. The fact that this comes from a very unknown and unsigned independent band goes to show that in this era, any band with the desire and talent can produce works that rival the quality of the most well-known works from earlier eras. Hidden From The World actually reminds me a lot of the Dream Theater masterwork, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory, both in its story telling as well as in its ambitious musical scope. Thematically, I’m also reminded of that great album from Israeli’s Amaseffer and their ambitious album about the life Moses. Like those bands, Oceanborn has a great vocalist in Lance Ferrel to really flesh out the main character as well as utilizing all manner of musical styles in a highly theatrical way to tell their story.

The album is 10 songs long but really feels much more like one orchestral suite. Clocking in at just under an hour, the album begins with the dramatic orchestral opener Silence and the slow, majestic Still With You where the hero of the tale sees that his love has committed suicide for reasons unknown. Lance Ferrell has a great rock voice which is perfect for illustrating the desperate longings of the album’s main character. The Descent, where the hero also kills himself and descends into hell begins as an upbeat melodic prog metal piece but adds in a beautiful, slow piano and orchestral section before ending in a great fashion with a nice well-crafted guitar solo. Lead Astray is a cool theatrical number that even has a very Western movie-like motif complete with whistling that reminds me of those great movies where the hero is lost among the villains and must fight his way free. Of Despair is a great driving symphonic metal song filled with drama and passion and it ends the first part of the album.

The last half of the album then proceeds to tell the tale about how the man tries to save both his love and himself and opens with the dramatic instrumental Scattered and switches gears immediately with In Shadows – a gorgeous contemplative ballad featuring a quiet chorus/organ section in the beginning as well as a guest female vocalist as we imagine the hero walking around trying to figure a way out of hell. Anger sets in big time with Lifting The Veil a great song of full-on headbanging prog metal with great grooves and vocal melodies but shifts halfway through into a very middle-eastern influenced dramatic section that would actually fit well on an Orphaned Land record before closing out the song with a strong technical flourish. It’s an amazing song that is one of the best and most exciting compositions I’ve heard all year. After two more high-energy songs, the album concludes in a dramatic and somewhat hopeful fashion with the closing epic, the 10-minute long Reprise.

One of the best things about this album is that even though it has a dark story line, this is not a dark album but rather it feels more like a great rock opera and, like the aforementioned Dream Theater album, is a rather simple story that’s just told really well. One of the best things about progressive rock and metal albums is how often the album is a cohesive whole rather than just a collection of songs and that couldn’t be more truer than on Oceanborn’s debut album. If you at all like conceptual progressive metal that is really well composed and expertly played by a band that feels like they’ve been around for years then Hidden From The World is definitely the album for you! You can hear the full album via the Spotify playlist below and you can purchase a copy via the Amazon.com link, also below.

Rating: 9/10

Review by Jeff Stevens - Prog Metal Zone

Website: www.oceanbornmusic.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/oceanbornmusic
Audio preview: www.oceanbornmusic.com/web-comic/
Video teaser: www.oceanbornmusic.com/hidden-from-the-world-teaser/

A MUST LISTEN FOR ALL PROGRESSIVE METAL FANS, ‘HIDDEN FROM THE WORLD’ IS AN HOUR LONG EPIC DEBUT RELEASE BY OCEANBORN.

Hailing from Chicago, Oceanborn has confirmed the release of their full length debut for September 2013. The album was predominantly recorded in Chicago at the band’s studio with drums being tracked by Chris King with Eyal Levi at Audiohammer Studios (Trivium, The Contortionist, Black Dahlia Murder, Daath, & more) in Sanford, FL. It was mixed by metal juggernaut Eyal Levi and mastered by Alan Douches of West West Side Music in New Windsor, NY.

“It was our initial goal to make a record that represented our influences, maintained a modern heavy metal sound and incorporated Lance’s unique vocal style. I believe we definitely accomplished that and more!” – Dominick Camillo (guitarist, producer)

The album displays technical musicianship, catchy songwriting and polished production in an 11 track/hour long package. After the first listen, it is clear that the songs appeal to a vast audience. They have moments of technical prog mastery, moments of pop-rock sing-along catchiness and moments of soft ballad-esque moodiness all atop a foundation of heavy metal.

“We love music. We wrote and produced this entire record ourselves with the invaluable help of Eyal Levi on the recording and mixing end. We really wanted to showcase not only our songwriting capabilities but also put on our producer hats for the first release. This record sounds great because we dedicated the time and heart that we needed to make it that way.” says Christopher Lee (guitarist, producer).

As part of a promotional campaign for the album release, the band has released an exclusive online graphic novel on their website (www.oceanbornmusic.com/web-comic/) that loosely follows the story behind the music and gives fans a chance to preview the music.

“To me, a web comic is a bad ass way to share our music with listeners in a unique way and also showcase our prowess as artists as well. I’ve always been a comic book fan and it was a lot of fun getting to write lyrics and vocal melodies for this album.” says Lance Ferrell (lyricist & vocalist)

A complete track listing of the album reads as follows:

Silence (Introduction)
Still With You
The Descent
Lead Astray
Of Despair
Scattered (Interlude)
In Shadows
Lifting the Veil
These Darker Things
A Part of Nothing
Reprise

Oceanborn:

Website: www.oceanbornmusic.com

Oceanborn is a progressive metal band from Chicago, IL, USA. Oceanborn was formed by Christopher Lee and Dominick Camillo in 2010. Shorty after the writing began, Lance Ferrell joined as the lyricist and vocalist. After putting the band fully together and playing a number of shows in the midwestern US, the band released a self produced three song EP entitled, “The Descent EP” online in March of 2012 under the name Tattoo the Devil. After much debate and a couple of member changes, the band decided to change the name before releasing a significant amount of content.

The bands sound incorporates a blend of alternative rock, progressive rock, classical, jazz & latin into their heavy metal compositions. Many songs include strong dynamic shifts in feeling and/or genre blending.

Eyal Levi / Audiohammer Studios

Website: http://www.audiohammerstudios.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/eyal.levi.18
Instagram: http://instagram.com/unstoppablekillingmachine
Tumblr: http://eyallevi.tumblr.com/

Eyal Levi is a critically acclaimed guitarist, composer, producer, and engineer.

Born into a musical family, Eyal was already playing violin and piano by the age of three, and composed his first symphonic work when he was just seventeen. In 1999 he attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, before leaving to return to his hometown of Atlanta in 2001 and found his own recording studio.

In 2010, Eyal moved to Orlando, Florida, where he joined forces with Jason Suecof (Trivium, Chimaira) and Mark Lewis (Deicide, DevilDriver) at Audiohammer Studios, helping to both expand and enrich their facilities by adding a magnificent drum room, two new control rooms, and sleeping quarters for the bands. As a part of the Audiohammer family, he’s worked with such acts as Job for a Cowboy, August Burns Red, The Black Dahlia Murder, Six Feet Under, Carnifex, Whitechapel, I Killed The Prom Queen, The Contortionist, Motionless In White, Arsis, Demon Hunter, Firewind, and Charred Walls of the Damned.

Alan Douches / West West Side Music

Website: http://www.westwestsidemusic.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/west.westside.7

One of the top engineers in the world, Alan Douches at West West Side Music has been polishing sound for the recording industry for more than 20 years.

I - Oceanborn

By: Melissa DeGott

Production quality is everything. It can make a great band sound awful or a terrible band sound better than they probably should. In this instance, it made an already great band sound epic. There are many progressive metal bands trying to come up with the newest and most innovative sound, many of them failing. Oceanborn makes their attempt at their own version of progressive metal seem effortless. Eerily dark and beautiful are the words that come to mind when listening to “Hidden From the World,” Oceanborn’s latest full-length effort (released September 24th, 2013). Obviously drawing inspiration from genres other than metal such as jazz and classical, the band creates a unique musical experience that all fans of music, whether they be metal enthusiasts or not, will thoroughly enjoy.

Oceanborn did something risky that I usually don’t like on an album. The first track is a two and a half minute purely instrumental piece entitled “Silence.” Whenever I see this on an album, I almost always skip over it because I assume that it is going to be a cliché intro that is nothing but “filler.” I’m so glad that the band took the risk and added this particular intro, however. It builds so beautifully and flows seamlessly to the following song. The band seems to be big on creating not only exceptional music, but also an atmosphere to go with your listening experience. I fell in love with the band after hearing the first introductory soundscape. The vocals on the album really stood out to me, as well. Many modern metal bands are trying to find the heaviest vocalist they can possibly find. I really liked that Oceanborn goes the opposite direction with their vocalist, Lance Ferrell. The emotional clean vocals add a very dynamic edge to the band. With a good portion of modern progressive metal bands being fronted by a screaming vocalist with little or no clean vocals, hearing Lance’s vocal abilities on this album came as a surprise and a very welcome change. If you are a fan of metal, progressive rock, or even post-hardcore, do yourself a favor and pick up “Hidden From the World”!

To find out more about Oceanborn, visit them at:

http://www.oceanbornmusic.com

http://www.facebook.com/oceanbornmusic - Rock in Chicago

Written by Andy

Hailing from Chicago USA, Oceanborn have delivered an outstanding debut album. In their short career since forming in 2010, the band have released one EP prior to their debut album Hidden From The World. Combing 90's style metal with the newer genres of this millennia Oceanborn have conjured a perfect blend of progressive, powerful music that anyone can enjoy.

Being a fan of old school metal I was a little sceptical when I received this album and researching the bands influences. The wide range music that inspire the band to become a very unique unit is interesting to say the least. Listening to the album some influences shine through more than others. It is always tricky to pay some kind of homage to peers and incorporate the various styles while writing your own material, but somehow Oceanborn have nailed it perfectly. To my surprise I heard what probably is one of the best progressive albums in a long time. The album contains a wide scope of musical styles, from classic rock, power metal, progressive metal even thrash metal, it’s a universal album of technical excellence. The hard part about creating progressive music is finding the right balance between being too technical and boring the listener and being too repetitive with simple riffing. The vocal style reminds me of Geoff Tate of Queensryche and Helloween vocalist Andi Deris, which is a very talented style of vocals to possess indeed combined with some of the new metal styles like Avenged Sevenfold and Trivium. The riffing is as complex as can be, modern style breaks in parts intertwined with powerful technical riffs. Packed full of awesome solos and harmonies. The drumming is also high quality with the newer techniques being preferred to complement the strung section. All in all Hidden From The World is a mammoth album from a band that have a promising future ahead of them. Make sure to remember the name Oceanborn as they are destined to become a household name within the metal community.
Silence (Introduction)
Still With You
The Descent
Lead Astray
Of Despair
Scattered (Interlude)
In Shadows
Lifting the Veil
These Darker Things
A Part of Nothing
Reprise - The Metal Review