There are places and experiences you fear engaging in but still feel compelled to immerse in; dark and imposing yet inescapably seductive propositions which lure and ensnare despite their ravenous shadows. Orion Fenix is one of those propositions or rather one which takes you and your imagination into such a shadow thick emotionally dark landscape so beguiling the only real option is to lose yourself in its tenebrific majesty.
Orion Fenix is the new EP from Owl, the solo project of Valborg guitarist/vocalist Christian Kolf. A single track, 22 minutes in length, the song is the creation of instinct and emotion, a piece which Kolf said in regard to its birth, ”There was no big thinking behind it, I just wrote it and that’s it. Let my feelings go.” It is an organic affair with flows over and envelops the senses like a tempest bearing lover; engaging and inflaming the imagination with every new twist and turn. Its epic length is like a slowly revolving kaleidoscope, bringing new emotive scenery and shades of light and shadow in an exploration which never truly repeats any of its fascinating moments or bewitching trespasses.
Emerging from sonic mists with a throaty resonance, immediately there is an alluring invitation from Orion Fenix but one with a portentous edge to its smouldering beauty. Graceful yet with a threat in its tone, the track rises until its tempestuousness sparks a heavy doomy gait. Its corrosive suggestiveness though is instantly tempered by the harmonic tones of Kolf, his voice similarly pure enticement and menace laced melancholy.
That early mellow air is in time a burning pyre of emotional and physical dissonance but just one passage in the journey as ill-boding lines a new relative calm from which melodic charm blossoms within the bleak climate; it in turn evolving into a desolate yet magnetic consumption.
And so the song continues, every minute a fresh suggestion, each turn a harbinger of new instinctive exploration either reassuring or unsettling; usually simultaneously both and always enthralling.
Quite simply Orion Fenix is stunning; invasively glorious and hauntingly torturous. It is also a riveting appetiser for Owl’s forthcoming full-length album Nights In Distortion; an experience which now just cannot come soon enough.
Orion Fenix is available now via Zeitgeister Music.
https://www.facebook.com/owlmetal
Pete RingMaster 28/03/2018
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
Album opener L’Harmonie et la Force instantly spreads an atmospheric breath around ears, intrigue and shadows blending within its intimation as melodies begin to vein the lure. All the time a rhythmic pulse is brewing, looming closer with portentous hues and eventually driving the heart of the sonic incursion. Vocals scowl and holler as beats throb, melodic enterprise as toxic yet magnetic as the black raw intensity of the track. Within seconds the body was bouncing, ears devouring, and enjoyment brewing, the track increasingly offering the kind of predacious enterprise which marked out the last album but with greater craft and maturity not forgetting fresh character.
For personal tastes, the release never quite hits that stunning peak again yet savages the sweet spot time and time again starting with Sinking Into Existence. From its first breath, the track is a torrent of sonic violation and vocal torment within black metal smog but again the guitars weave some beguiling melodic toxins and lures to entwine eager ears. There is a predatory side to the track too, a calmer but no less threatening trespass which lifts the song to new captivation and richer emotive depths before Scourge envelops the senses with its own considered but rabid grudge. Again Calligram merge raw essences and viciousness with melodic enterprise and beauty, everything tainted in varying degrees but equally fascinating as it heads towards a passage of murderous rock ‘n’ roll and haunting sonic corrosion, and out again; Rizzardo magnetically guiding the creative pestilence.
Was there any specific idea behind the forming of the band and also in what you wanted it and your sound to offer and do they still continue to steer the ship?
The excellent trespass features guest Will Ramos from A Wake in Providence, its successor Seven Faces sees For the Fallen Dreams vocalist Chad Ruhlig guesting. The track instantly submerges the listener in an invasive cloud of predatory noise, from the midst of which winding grooves and rampant rhythms driven by the vicious swings of Victor Figueroa break. His beats are pure venom in every touch, the bass of Alex Niszczak a predacious companion whilst the guitars of Randy Mac and Joe Fedele cast a sonic tempest built on technical and instinctive dexterity which is pure toxicity. The threat loaded throat of vocalist Chaz Macklin centres it all with an almost carnal prowess, his intensive examination just as compelling within next up Savages which has Dan Watson of Enterprise Earth and Sims Cashion additionally on board. On the surface, the song seems less adventurous than its predecessors though its grooves swiftly wind persuasively around ears but time and intent reveals the devious web at its core luring increased attention as a swarming of sonic temptation offers delicious bait.
New Haven’s SEA OF BONES and New Hampshire’s RAMLORD come together for one of the incursions upon ears, each offering one epic trespass of their uncompromising sound and intent. Sea of Bones strike first with HOPELESSNESS AND DECAY, the trio of bassist/vocalist Gary Amedy, guitarist/vocalist Tom Mucherino, and drummer/vocalist Kevin Wigginton unleashing a cavernous soundscape soaked in predacious intensity from the off. For over ten minutes the trio breed a wall of confrontation as expansive and decayed as it is at times melancholically seductive. The track ambles, at times lumbers, across the senses, spreading its filth clad body and air with sludge fuelled hostility and moments of corrosive ambience leaving ears and emotions numb.
respect of the listener’s peace and sanity, the first half of the split is consumed by Black Tar Prophet’s sludge/doom powered incursions into the senses and imagination. Starting with the compelling persistence of MALIGNANT, a track living up to its name, the duo of bassist Greg Swinehart and drummer Erik Dever snarl in their distinct way across a further three incitements. As dark as they are heavy, as primal as they are strangely comforting and understanding to the darkest corners of one’s thoughts, Black Tar Prophet probe and transfix with RUINOUS DECAY and the deeply disturbed ABUSE especially momentous.
The last of the Broken Limbs offerings is GUILT AND HIS REFLECTION, thirteen tracks bringing Texans CARA NEIR and WILDSPEAKER together in a split which sees its concept realised through both bands revolving around cannibalism in a post-apocalyptic scenario. The first seven songs escape the creative potency of Arlington, Texas crust duo vocalist Chris Francis and multi-instrumentalist Garry Brents. Starting with the sonically and vocally raw but melodically seductive HALO OF GREY, Cara Neir proceed to explore not only the psychological depths and impact bred in an apocalyptic environment but those of the listener too as tracks like CLINGING TO MY LAST BIT OF SANITY and THE VIEW THROUGH THIS FOG seem to flirt with ears and imagination as fully as they wonderfully antagonise them with their blend of black metal and post rock infested punk. Each of the band’s songs leave a potent impact with the outstanding almost poppy EGO EATS MAN stealing the pair’s half of the show.