Detailed Reviews [Oak - 2025 - "The Third Sleep"]

Prolusion. Norwegian band Oak started out back in 2013, initially self-releasing their debut album the same year prior to signing for Norwegian label Apollon Records in 2016. Two years later the band attached themselves to Norwegian label Karisma Records, and have released three albums through that label since then. The most recent of these is "The Third Sleep", which was released towards the end of April in 2025.

Analysis. It is an atmospheric laden variety of progressive rock that Oak explore on this fourth studio album of theirs. They have a bit of a specialty in the creation of alluring and compelling landscapes of a more careful nature, where the acoustic guitar and the piano are vital ingredients alongside a lead vocalist that to my ears at least have a broadly appealing tone and timbre as well as a solid emotional and melodic control. Careful electric guitar additions and keyboard textures that come and go adds to the tension of this delicate passages, and on occasion additional instruments gets a role to play too. The band will obviously make good use of contrasting features in such a setting too, and while the delicate landscapes are pleasing and enthralling in their own right, they need something to play upon to maintain that level of interest. And here we get both carefully applied majestic surges and more dramatic, harder edged displays that provide such a contrast, sections that have more of an emotional and energetic edge if you like. On occasion with these kinds of arrangements dominating the landscapes explored too. We also get some neat variations, like the use of a booming bass and a distinct synthesizer in the song 'London'. Those fond of more elongated, careful and dream laden instrumental sections will get their desires fulfilled on a few occasions too, with such excursions placed in the second half of some of the songs here, and at the very end of the album Oak showcase that they know their way around creating a more tension filled, chaotic and dramatic conclusion too. One of the bands that I have really enjoyed listening to over the years is a German band called Sylvan, and I'd say that the mood and atmosphere and to some extent the music itself reminds me of Sylvan and the type of music they explored some 20 years ago. Some of the instrumental sections on this album reminded me ever so slightly about another German band, RPWL, while some of the manners in which the compositions themselves ebb and flow may perhaps have some trace similarities to a band like Porcupine Tree. And while associations of this type will always be flawed to some extent, they will hopefully provide a little bit of a general idea about the type of music you will find on this album.

Conclusion. I find Oak to be quite the mesmerizing band when they are at their best, and on this latest album of theirs the band shine bright with delicate beauty and appropriate contrasting moments of harder edged and occasionally borderline metal-tinged displays, but also with more careful and alluring majestic surges. The songs are engaging, the execution impeccable, and amidst solid quality material we get some golden nuggets that have an extra shine to them as well. I suspect that those with an affection for atmospheric laden progressive rock of the kind that should appeal also among fans of sophisticated and elegant melodic rock and hard rock should find the landscapes explored on this production to be rather mesmerizing.

Progmessor: April 2025
The Rating Room