Review by Sonny for Ocean of Grief - Pale Existence (2023)

Ocean of Grief are a Greek six-piece who play a melodic style of death doom that aims for a sombre, melancholy mood rather than attempting to crush the air from the listener's lungs or infecting them with the charnel odours of some deep, dark abyss. Pale Existence is the band's second full-length following 2018's debut, Nightfall's Lament, of which I was quite a fan. Pale Existence also marks the swansong of vocalist Charalabos Oikonomopoulos who has since been replaced by Shattered Hope's Nick Vlachakis.

What leaps out at you the most about Ocean of Grief is their melodic and soaring, yet mournful-sounding guitar lines that have a clear and clean air about them which contrast exceedingly well with the gruff growling vocals and the heavier riffs. The band concentrate on generating atmosphere and strive for a more nuanced approach than sheer weight to achieve their aims, which to a certain extent they achieve quite admirably. I won't pretend that this is my preferred style of death doom because I love that crushing, sulphurous style perpetuated by the likes of early Autopsy or Coffins, but Ocean of Grief's version of a lighter, more melancholy style holds an appeal for me over some of the more theatrical-leaning death doom practitioners who smother thair attempts at projecting mourning and melancholy in keyboards and overwrought vocal shenanigans. Less seems to be more where these Greeks are concerned.

Of course, the issue with a lot of metal that concentrates on atmosphere and of which Oceans of Grief are also guilty is that the riffs aren't especially memorable, although some are very good indeed, but I didn't really find any of them worming their way into my hindbrain and sticking with me long after the album has ceased playing. Imprisoned Between Worlds is my favourite here and is probably the track that comes closest to staying with me, helped of course by the fact that it is the heaviest of the album's seven tracks. For me this is an album that is a very strong example of a style that I quite enjoy, but don't really love, so it scores well, even though it doesn't especially set my world afire. I know that sounds like damning with faint praise a little, but it is definitely worth your time and someone more inclined to it's melodic nature may rate it very highly indeed.