Layers of guitars build to a tumultuous cascade of noise on this, Ordh’s debut release Blind In Abyssal Realms. Built on a backdrop of sludge and progressive metal, obvious comparisons can be made to the likes of Mastodon yet these are much more primeval and play it a little more straight. Not for them the gnarled and groove-ridden guitars, but instead a massed wall of sound that hits you like a sledgehammer.
That’s the exact feeling that opening track ‘Apis Bull’ does to you and from the off the Vermont metallers continue to pummel you into submission. ‘Moon Of Urd’ is a dense, layered monstrosity hewn from the very rock of the Earth. It’s wall of sound broken up by some excellent progressive melodic guitar playing which allows breathing space amongst the turgid atmosphere. Elements of tech death metal creep in, albeit played at a much slower pace than some of the more esteemed bands of that genre. Oppressiveness is the name of the game here.
‘Phlegraean Fields’ is a beast of a track which winds and twists its way through an incessant riff, before drifting off into a number of different tangents, be they explosive guitar solos or exploratory ambient textures. Really pushing out the progressiveness, it forms the heart of the album in all its glory. Superb. The meandering title track crawls in at a glacial pace before heading into a maelstrom of noise as you feel yourself drawn in by the cascading instruments. It’s the feeling of being drawn into a vortex of lost souls, with its quieter moments offering brief respite before more horrors are thrust at you.
The album finishes with the mighty ‘Hierothesion’, which is the most death metal track here. A frantic race after the primordial soup of the title track, it offers no respite from the oppressive nature of the album, but is the perfect release from its grasp. It is closure on a quite remarkable album which takes you on a real journey. A fantastic release in an already packed year, and Ordh are certainly a band to keep an eye on.
