Oceans of Slumber, Runescarred, Slow Motion Crush

“Sometimes we get to a show – and more so here than overseas – and I’m the only Black person there.” So remarked Houston’s Cammie Smalls to metal mag Decibel deep in the heart of the pandemic’s BLM moment, 2020. Indeed, quick, name another frontwoman of her race in the hard arts. As a matter of fact, the Space City sextet’s fifth LP, July’s Starlight and Ash, coos and croons far more neo-soul than prog rock. Smalls turns in a tour de force of emotive truth, “The Lighthouse” and “The Hanging Tree” squeezing out Adele-sized pathos rather than Lita Ford-like gut rock. Stunning.