The Weight of Oceans

Some years ago I found In Mourning while searching for some random melodic death metal, and when I heard one of their songs I fell in love with this band. Some days ago I was shuffling through all my music, and I ended hearing this band once again, and since I was bored I decided to listen to this full album, and to be honest, I never actually liked hearing an entire album since I always get bored after 20 minutes, but The Weight of Oceans did not bore me at any moment.

The album opens with one of the most awesome songs that I've ever heard, Colossus. This song starts by building an atmosphere with all the instruments joining as the intro goes on, and then we get to the heavy riffs and backing melodies, like in most of the songs featured in this album. Most of the songs in this album have a dark atmosphere, there are a lot of feelings mixed in each song, and the vocals are really impassioned using low growls, screams and even clean singing when the songs demand it, even the damn drums contribute a lot to the atmosphere, as the drummer uses a lot of different cymbals, a lot of blasts and makes awesome drums fills. The bass is also there, and in some songs (like Colossus or Convergence) it takes some protagonism. As the album progresses the songs become heavier and less melodic (they still don't lose the awesome harmonies or some melodic riffs), but things go like that until suddenly get Celestial Tear, which is a prog-styled ballad with weird chord progressions and clean vocals (still it gets heavy at the end). After that we get other common prog death songs, except for Sirens which is a short piano instrumental.

This conceptual album also tells a great history, it's like hearing a movie (what?). So, the lyrics tell the story of a man afraid of the seas, who sails on a journey to conquer the ocean, but perishes (or get stranded?) in his attempt. The music goes along with the lyrics so well that I would say that this wasn't composed by humans, but by a superior musical mastermind (once again, what?).

To keep the review going, after watching some live videos and tabs, I noticed that some songs (as A Vow to Conquer the Ocean) are actually quite simple (even I can play them, and I suck as a guitarist). The way that In Mourning achieves those great atmospheres is by using synths, octave chords, arpeggios, natural and artificial harmonics, and obviously the vocals. As I said before, as the album goes on, the songs become heavier, with Isle of Solace or Voyage of a Wavering Mind being more aggressive and heavy than melodic songs.

To end this, the sound quality is excellent, like the mixing and mastering. There's not a single error in the recording, everything is performed perfectly. To make a summary, The Weight of the Oceans is one of the best prog death albums that you can hear, it's both melodic and heavy, pleasing those who like melodeath and common prog death equally. It's definitely a must have for any metal fan out there, give it a listen!

Highlights: Colossus, A Vow to Conquer the Ocean, Convergence