Orgg - Dimonios (Self Released) [Paul Scoble]
Italian band Orgg have been making music together since 2018. The four piece have released one album in that time in 2020’s The Great White War, making Dimonios the band's second album. Orgg is made up of Osten on keyboards, Iblis A.G. on bass, Vulak on guitar and L on vocals. Lyrically the band write about The Great White War (as referenced in the title of their debut), or Guerra Blanca in Italian, which refers to the high altitude areas of the Italian front during World War One, where all of the fighting took place over two thousand meters altitude.
Stylistically Orgg play a very taut, direct and fairly extreme form of black metal, the sound is part second wave black metal, a little reminiscent of Immortal, and part third wave with a little bit of early Watain and maybe a little Koldbrann. The sound is tight, very well produced and mixed, and has a definite, clearly defined intent; Orgg are not messing about. The album is split between slower, riffy black metal and ultra fast tremolo picked black metal, often in the same song. A good example of the slower style is on the second track A Darker Shade, which has a similar pace to Immortal’s Tyrants; a walking pace that has an unrelenting and unstoppable feel to it.
The track does get faster towards the end, but this track is all about the slow and relentless. Another track that has a fantastic slow part is the track Feral War, which opens with drums and clean guitar before going into a very slow and very heavy riff, this riff builds until the song is still slow, but with a huge expansive feel. The second half of the track is the exact opposite with ragingly fast and savage riffs, which sound even more rapid in juxtaposition to the slow and heavy opening. Orgg are very good when they go fast as well, Die Eisstadt is a great example of Orgg’s savagery. The track is blasting fast from the very first note, this is very tight very fast tremolo picked riffs that just tear your face off. The song does have a few slow and expansive parts, but Die Eisstadt is all about velocity.
Ashes is another blast of a track, opening in a very dramatic way with slow and pounding heavy riffs, the song then takes a turn towards the fast with some very fast and beautifully flowing riffs, the feeling of speed and inertia is huge. The fast parts on Ashes have a slightly lighter feel than the rest of the material and it feels as if the song is soaring through the sky, it’s so full of energy and speed. Aurona has a little bit of all the styles on offer on this album. The song opens in a very slow and heavy way, with pounding riffs before dropping the listener into fast, flowing tremolo picked riffs that are full of vigour, the song then goes into some mid-paced riffs that have a bit of a punky or hardcore feel, before dropping us back into slow and expansive, before some choppy, punky riffs take the song to it’s end.
Dimonios is a great album. The material is very well written and realised, the songs draw you in, and are affecting. This album does not mess about, the feeling of intent runs right through this album, it sets out to convey a very specific set of feelings to its audience, and like a well oiled machine it delivers on every promise. It is a tight, focused album that will not disappoint, highly recommended. 8/10
The Eating Cave – Ingurgitate (Planet Eater Records) [Zach Scott]
Combining ferocious technicality with brutally heavy breakdowns, The Eating Cave is a technical deathcore outfit that combines influence from the blinding speeds of modern tech death giants such as Archspire and Beyond Creation, as well as the savage heaviness of modern deathcore groups like Osiah.
The Eating Cave – Ingurgitate (Planet Eater Records) [Zach Scott]
Combining ferocious technicality with brutally heavy breakdowns, The Eating Cave is a technical deathcore outfit that combines influence from the blinding speeds of modern tech death giants such as Archspire and Beyond Creation, as well as the savage heaviness of modern deathcore groups like Osiah.
Kicking right off with a deathcore breakdown, An Aura Of Terror is a no-nonsense track, featuring machine-gun blast beat verses interspersed with guitar solos and slam riffs, showcasing the band’s musical skill and songwriting proficiency straight away. The production is very clean, almost too sterile at points, but allows each instrument to shine through with powerful clarity and for the vocals to take charge.
The band don’t allow technicality to make the music boring, with groovier riffs such as the opening and breakdowns of Sadistic Entanglement serving as a counterpoint to the proggier harmonies and relentless technical riffing – this song also serves as a standout moment for the vocalist, as his long, held-out scream at the final breakdown is impressive without straying into showboating. The songwriting on this album is of a very high standard, with weaving riffs and breakdowns never overstaying their welcome and rarely feeling overused – The Eating Cave’s use of the more technical side of deathcore isn’t for the sake of it and carries weight with it.
An excellent standout moment of clever song- and part-writing is in the fretless bass descending figure during the dual guitar shred in A Godless Entity – it comes out of nowhere and is a very satisfying little addition to an already great section. Bass is often underutilised in deathcore, but it is used to great effect across this record especially in its strong inspiration from early technical death metal bassists like Steve DiGiorgio and more modern players like Hugo Doyon-Karout, making it stand head and shoulders above a lot of the genre. As is the case with a lot of deathcore, the drums are of a very high technical standard, with very fast and precise double bass as well as technical fills when needed.
They don’t particularly stand out amongst deathcore drummers in terms of having a distinctive style, but this doesn’t negate the impressive musicianship on display – the same can be said about the guitar work, which features many classic hallmarks of technical deathcore such as sweep arpeggios and shred fills reminiscent of genre titans Rings Of Saturn. There are many memorable riffs across the album that feel like they’ve been written very thoughtfully, and with attention paid to how the instruments interact with each other which brings the listening experience to another level – none of the riffs feel particularly “written on autopilot” as you can sometimes find with deathcore.
Another interesting element the band adds is some synth textures towards the end of the record – Aggregate Vanity II: Periodic Absolution features some brief and tasteful use of horn-like synths for a short section which gives this track a unique sound of its own. It is genuinely hard to find fault in this record. Every instrument is well-written and tightly performed, the songs are heavy and relentless but not without melody, the vocals are powerful and dynamic, and it takes influence from deathcore and slam without relying on breakdowns or animalistic vocal noises to be heavy.
The only real issue is the production is a little too clean and sterile – a little rawness would’ve complemented the deathcore-based attack of the drums and vocals nicely, but this is a pretty nit picking complaint from an otherwise excellent record. Definitely a must listen for all deathcore and tech death fans. 10/10
Vypera - Eat Your Heart Out (Frontiers Music Srl) [Finn O'Dell]
Frontiers Music seems to always put out some amazing rock and metal, and this is no exception. The debut from Vypera, out June 17th, takes me right back to my 80's hard rock roots. There have been a lot of bands bringing back the sound that us old rockers remember fondly and these Swedes do it well. For me, maintaining the classic sound without coming off cheesey can be a tough act to pull off, but I can assure you, these boys pull it off with flare. After an initial listen, I am picking up on sounds that remind me of Triumph or Deep Purple.
Vypera - Eat Your Heart Out (Frontiers Music Srl) [Finn O'Dell]
Frontiers Music seems to always put out some amazing rock and metal, and this is no exception. The debut from Vypera, out June 17th, takes me right back to my 80's hard rock roots. There have been a lot of bands bringing back the sound that us old rockers remember fondly and these Swedes do it well. For me, maintaining the classic sound without coming off cheesey can be a tough act to pull off, but I can assure you, these boys pull it off with flare. After an initial listen, I am picking up on sounds that remind me of Triumph or Deep Purple.
It lacks the glam rock feel that was big in the 80's and is more of a straight rocking radio friendly release, something Frontiers seem to specialize in. Their vocalist, Andreas Wallström, fits this sound so perfectly. Stand out cuts here include Standing On The Edge and Fool For The Night. Perfect timing for this album as it feels like summer party music or road trip tunes. With the massive amount of new music these days, this one is definitely worth your time. Love the overall feel of this good time rock and roll. 8/10
The Swell Fellas - Novaturia EP (Self Released) [Quinn Mattfeld]
It’s “Ominous Ellipses Summer" y’all! The Swell Fellas have certainly done their part, bookending their new EP Novaturia with the gloomy opening drone of Something’s There… and closing with the sprawling …Another Realm, a towering 11 minute opus that begins with echoes of Joy Division, channels Pink Floyd, and finally crashes into its apex somewhere around the middle of minute eight with all the sludgy fury of Through Silver In Blood-era Neurosis. As a writer with a proclivity toward foreboding punctuation myself, the dangers of the ominous ellipses are well known and well feared: what goes unsaid in those three little dots can fail to live up to its own shadow when the portended words finally arrive.
The Swell Fellas have adeptly avoided that fate on Novaturia offering a five track EP that delivers what that tiny triad of successive circles promises. Following in the footsteps of their East Coast brethren in stoner-psych metal, Elder, real-life brothers Conner (guitar/vocals) and Chris Poole (drums) along with bassist Mark Rohrer display a facility with tension and release in their music that belies their relatively brief career thus far. That collective musical adroitness no doubt comes from building a shared vernacular with one another and their audience through the unglamorous manual labor of playing club gigs in and around their hometown of Ocean City, Maryland… and it has paid off! See how I did that?
Nowhere are The Swell Fellas gifts more present than their two advance singles High Lightsolate another eight plus minute epic that lifts the album out of the mysterious ambience of exotic soundscapes with a transcendent prog riff at its center and the relentlessly punishing Wet Cement which drives the album into new depths with it’s chugging low-end conclusion. The final moments of the record establish Conner Poole’s metal vocal cred and my only hope is that The Swell Fellas can find more opportunity to explore that howling, harrowing wail a bit earlier on their next record.
The Swell Fellas - Novaturia EP (Self Released) [Quinn Mattfeld]
It’s “Ominous Ellipses Summer" y’all! The Swell Fellas have certainly done their part, bookending their new EP Novaturia with the gloomy opening drone of Something’s There… and closing with the sprawling …Another Realm, a towering 11 minute opus that begins with echoes of Joy Division, channels Pink Floyd, and finally crashes into its apex somewhere around the middle of minute eight with all the sludgy fury of Through Silver In Blood-era Neurosis. As a writer with a proclivity toward foreboding punctuation myself, the dangers of the ominous ellipses are well known and well feared: what goes unsaid in those three little dots can fail to live up to its own shadow when the portended words finally arrive.
The Swell Fellas have adeptly avoided that fate on Novaturia offering a five track EP that delivers what that tiny triad of successive circles promises. Following in the footsteps of their East Coast brethren in stoner-psych metal, Elder, real-life brothers Conner (guitar/vocals) and Chris Poole (drums) along with bassist Mark Rohrer display a facility with tension and release in their music that belies their relatively brief career thus far. That collective musical adroitness no doubt comes from building a shared vernacular with one another and their audience through the unglamorous manual labor of playing club gigs in and around their hometown of Ocean City, Maryland… and it has paid off! See how I did that?
Nowhere are The Swell Fellas gifts more present than their two advance singles High Lightsolate another eight plus minute epic that lifts the album out of the mysterious ambience of exotic soundscapes with a transcendent prog riff at its center and the relentlessly punishing Wet Cement which drives the album into new depths with it’s chugging low-end conclusion. The final moments of the record establish Conner Poole’s metal vocal cred and my only hope is that The Swell Fellas can find more opportunity to explore that howling, harrowing wail a bit earlier on their next record.
There are moments of meandering throughout but they are few and far between (like the latter third of High Lightsolate) and none of them diminish what is an incredible offering from a band I think we can expect to surprise and delight us in the years ahead… 8/10