“It’s part science fiction, part western gunslinger with a heavy dash of post-apocalyptic survival”: Progressive doom maestros Oceans Of Slumber announce Where Gods Fear To Speak album, release elegant single Poem Of Ecstasy

Oceans Of Slumber in 2024
(Image credit: Violeta Alvarez)

American prog/doom outfit Oceans Of Slumber have announced their next album, Where Gods Fear To Speak.

The sextet will release their sixth studio album – promoted as a “dark, cinematic” concept piece – on September 13 via Season Of Mist. Preorders are now available.

To accompany the news, the band have put out new single Poem Of Ecstasy and its music video. Watch the clip and hear the song below.

Drummer Dobber Beverly comments: “Where Gods Fear To Speak exists somewhere between The Handmaid’s Tale, The Dark Tower and Cormac McCarthy.

“It’s part science fiction, part western gunslinger with a heavy dash of post-apocalyptic survival.”

Of Poem Of Ecstasy, Beverly adds: “Every time you make a new record, you think it’s the best, but Poem Of Ecstasy is easily one of the best songs we’ve ever written.

“It sounds like an energetic, pissed-off-band, with enigmatic storytelling and all those magical things.”

Says vocalist Cammie Gilbert-Beverly: “All of the songs on Where Gods Fear To Speak are set in this futuristic, derelict world, where the lower class are rebelling against their overzealous rulers, but Poem Of Ecstasy is the album’s big no-holds-barred love song.”

Oceans Of Slumber formed in 2011 and released debut album Aetherial in 2013.

The Houston-based band were joined by singer Gilbert-Beverly in 2014. Cammie and Dobber married in 2021.

Oceans Of Slumber released their latest album, Starlight And Ash, in 2022 to critical acclaim.

Metal Hammer journalist Dannii Leivers gave the album a glowing four-star review.

“[T]here’s no doubt that Starlight And Ash is the sound of a band playing to all of their strengths,” Leivers wrote.

“This is yet another album that marks them out as one of modern metal’s most innovative operators.”

The band released the first single and title track from Where Gods Fear To Speak in April.

Matt Mills
Contributing Editor, Metal Hammer

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.