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When John Gallo (guitars, organ) had contacted me through a forum some months before to invite me in the dark Orodruin magical mystery trip through sending me a promo, I could hardly imagine what was about to follow, indeed. Orodruin from the New York state are one of the biggest hopes in the genre they belong in and that can be easily seen even if you listen to even a single track from them. Having the great ability of making the strongest possible combination between the heaviest sound and riffs of the first Black Sabbath albums with the way of playing doom metal in the vein of legendary like Trouble, Saint Vitus, The Obsessed and Cathedral, but also adding some classical heavy metal elements, the result could be nothing but interesting! Ignoring the older and forgotten now NWOBHM roots of the band, "Epicurean Mass" is an album that contains all the good elements one could love in the heaviness metal has. In case you wonder, Orodruin use in their debut album clean vocals to express their doom torture, but occasionally one will even find some growl-like vocals in some of the album's tracks very discreetly used here and there, but really adding all the needed dramatical atmosphere to the songs. I could probably name the songs "Pierced By Cluel Wings", "Unspeakable Truth" and the excellent "Burn The Witch" (what a simple but effective intro!) as the big highlights of this album, but I suppose it's a completely subjective way of doing this, since not a single weak track can be found in it. No, it's not the album that will change your life, but it worths every single second of recorded music in it and it can easily make you addicted to its slinky poison. Concerning the lyrical part of "Epicurean Mass", Orodruin want to make the listener understand the real feeling that their music already brings out: melancholy, despair and serious psycological dead-ends in the big black endless trip of their Saint Vitus lyrical influences. They certainly and fully achieve this goal, always in combination with their nice music, but nothing more and nothing less. Some will definately enjoy them, but some others may find them neutral. Having to close, this album is fully recommended to anybody that enjoys heaviness in music combined with the dark elements a traditional doom metal album can possibly offer. Groove, vibrancy, low frequences, great theatrical but deep and steady vocals, great guitar and drum use are only some few of the elements that consist this brightly shining artificial stone of doom. Orodruin without a single doubt have all the presuppositions to become a really big band in the very near future. Whether they'll achieve it or not, depends on us as well. Since it's rather possible for you not to be able to find this album on the stores, check their official page: http://www.orodruin.us
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KJP / May 2003 |
