Oceans of Sadness is a fairly progressive metal band from Dessel, Belgium. So far they've realeased 4 albums and their fourth album, tentatively called 'Mirror Palace' is released in april 2007 on the italian label Scarlet Records.

Oceans of Sadness started out in 1995 and drew inspiration from bands such as Type O Negative, Amorphis and Paradise Lost. Within five months of starting the band the first demo 'Forgotten Symphony I' was already released. The demo tape became the "demo of the month" in Aardschok – the professional music journal of the Netherlands. At the time, the main ambition was to create slow and ultra deep songs – much like those of the bands that inspired Oceans of Sadness. But the songs already had a face of their own and a recognizable sound that you still can identify in the more recent works. In 1999 the young act surprised everyone by winning the Metal Bash Award – a talent competition, organized by Aardschok – which very much helped the band to a larger audience with performances on Dynamo Open Air, 'Aardschokdag' and on Biebob Metalfest. Two years later Oceans Of Sadness signed a two-album-deal with Belgian LSP records and soon after that the debut album 'For We Are' was released. Graspop Metal Meeting noticed the intense live presentation of the band, and invited Oceans Of Sadness for the first time on their esteemed festival.

Second album, Laughing Tears Crying Smile was released in 2002, bringing the band to quite a higher level of musiscianship. The album got good reviews worldwide but distribution failed as it was only released in Belgium and the Netherlands. In support of their second album the band opened up for Within Temptation and Dimmu Borgir.

The third album, called ... Send in the Clowns, was recorded and released in 2004 by Apache Productions. "Clowns" was a bright musical epos, full of different genres varying from non-metal (classical, jazz, flamenco) over the very best out of the different metal genres (death metal, black metal).

In 2006 Oceans of Sadness came in contact with producer Jens Bogren (Opeth, Katatonia, Amon Amarth) of Fascination Street Studios in Sweden. Once the upcoming album 'Mirror Palace' was recorded at the Motormusic Studio (Lint, BE) the band went to Sweden and the album was mixed. The new album takes a couple more steps on the experimental path that Oceans of Sadness has been on for quite some time. The end result is just as interesting to fans of extreme metal such as Cradle of Filth and Meshuggah as it is to fans of more melodic rock acts like System of a Down or Alice in Chains. 'Mirror Palace' is a shining example that metal is still progressing and can be fused with classical music, jazz or even good ol' ragtime. In the beginning of 2007 the band signed a deal with Scarlet Records (Terror 2000, The Defaced, ...) for the release of 'Mirror Palace' and the album saw light in april 2007.

Band Members

Present
Tijs Vanneste – Vocals
Wim Melis – Guitars
Tom Van Cauwenberghe – Guitars
Hans Claes – Keyboards
Jo Van Heghe – Bass
Guy Vernelen – Drums

Past
Bert Rommes – Bass (1996-2005)
Jan Van Deuren – Guitars (1995-2003)
Tor Kemps – Guitars (1995-2001)