ORACLE SUN – Deep Inside

If this were the 1980s, you could bet your beer money that any Metal album titled Deep Inside was going to deliver a manly load of good ol’ American “Cock Rock.” Well, check your cock at the door … Deep Inside is the name of Oracle Sun’s new album of serious, modern, Progressive Metal. The title’s apparently unintentional sexual suggestiveness is almost, but not quite, as much of a misnomer as Nigel Tufnel’s (Spinal Tap) serious piano ballad, “Lick My Love Pump.”

In fact, according to the record company promo sheet, Oracle Sun set out to “add new solutions and alternative sounds” to their type of playing, and they offer Deep Inside as the starting point of that exciting journey. So, how does the music measure up? Well, a journey Deep Inside the debut effort reveals nothing new, nothing alternative, no creamy nougat center.

Hefty claims to innovation aside, general credit is due Oracle Sun, et al., who deliver today’s industry standards of production and technical proficiency requisite in their genre. However, while modern recording technology and the average level of musicianship have grown by leaps and bounds since the early days of Metal, musical individuality is still hard to come by. Deep Inside is typical in these ways, with minor exceptions.

The music is still head and shoulders above the drivel that makes the Top 40 Pop charts, for no other reason than the skill and precision in performance. Oracle Sun offer all the staples that have become expected in Prog-Metal, and each listener will obviously decide for himself how much entertainment value he will derive from Oracle Sun’s metronomic drumming, typical, harmonized guitar hooks, power-chord rhythms, token keyboard synths, etc. Although the vocals are above average, in the final analysis Oracle Sun join the rank and file.

Deep Inside offers the sameness that is turning this type of Prog-Metal into a stereotype. In this young genre’s balance between the technical and the artistic, the latter has a lot of catching up to do.

Oracle Sun are: Val Shieldon (vocals); Fabrizio Marnik (keyboards); Emi Manuguerra (guitars); Alessandro Cola (bass); Frank Andiver (drums). In addition, primary writing credits for music and lyrics are given to F. Rubulotta and F. Marnica.