Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Dormant Ordeal - "It Rains, It Pours" (2013)

Self – produced full – length album (March 17th 2013)

Line – up (2005):       Maciej Proficz – vocals;
                                    Maciej Nieścioruk – guitars/vocals;
                                   Kacper Działdowski – bass;
                                   Radek Kowal – drums.

Location:        Cracow (Poland).

Better song of the album:

“Man from the Water”.

Better feature of the platter:

Its brutal inventiveness combined with its ability to worry the listener.
                     Dormant Ordeal - It Rains, It Pours  
Artwork: Agnieszka Osipa

Men, I know that you care nothing about it but ultimately I have a crazy fear because I will play in my very first theatrical spectacle at May 30th… and I will be the protagonist! But, considering we are talking about the debuts, this time I review the first album of the Dormant Ordeal (what the fuck a forced connection!), started as solo project of Radek Kowal and that I advice you already and without any problems. I am exciting very much about the extreme Polish metal, that is decisively both violent and full of inventiveness. In fact, you should read in a month’s time also the review about the sixth studio album of the Antigama, death/grind band that is now historic for Poland. But it’s too soon for them, so we see what Dormant Ordeal have to offer to us.

The album starts with a very atmospheric and relaxing ambient music… “unfortunately”, “Depopulation of Io” is a simply 30 – seconds intro, because after there’s a modern death metal full of blast – beasts and continuous surprises behind the corner. The atmosphere is hysterical, so the riffing is very dynamic but the melody is almost completely absent, and sometimes it is apocalyptic. In this way, it is helped by some (and rare) effects that are very atmospheric. In fact, Dormant Ordeal can remember sometimes Meshuggah, just with more muscles and less extravagant passages, also because, among the other things, the band shoot at times a remarkable groove (like in “Your Mother – Slave”).

Effectively, restlessness is the keyword to describe the album. The vocals are another example of this feature. All right, they consists of very typical growls with the occasional support of a lower growl and a killer scream. On the other hand, the vocals are perpetually doubled, artificial detail that give more and more restlessness to the music.

Another interesting aspect comes again from the guitars, nay, the soloist guitar. Its interventions are few but always effective, so to create usually short solos, that can stops abruptly (like in the dreadful finale of “Unimagined, Unwritten, Unseen”). Every song has a solo, only “The Stepfather” and “The Sinless” don’t respect this iron rule, holding the musical discourse without solo (and “The Stepfather” is also the shorter song of the album considering its 2 minutes and 20 seconds circa of length).

But, suddenly, after 5 very furious songs, there’s a 1 - minute atmospheric interlude, that is “Dememorization”, that seems to be a memento mori with its funeral bells, remembering me that my theatrical performance will be very soon. Panic! “Come on, don’t be ridiculous and say rather that, thanks to the interlude, the 2nd part of the album starts in a very drastic way.” Oh yeah, you’re right, man!

In fact, the last 4 songs are very different than the first ones because they are longer (from 4 to 5 minutes of length), more structured (but exaggerating never as regard the complexity) and even blacker (listen “The Animal” and, especially, “Man from the Water”), useful thing that give more atmosphere and coldness to the assault. And still, the 2nd part shows a stronger personality than the first one. In this way, I must absolutely mention the only mid – tempo song of the platter, that is “Days That Didn’t Make It”, also if it doesn’t shines paradoxically as regards the inventiveness; and “Here Be Lions”, the only melodic episode complete with an obsessive and desperate end.

I like very much the album’s production, because it is very clean but losing nothing in crudeness. For example, the drums have a decisively “true” sound, in a similar way to the “Morbid Priest of Supreme Blasphemy” of the compatriots Kingdom.
 Dormant Ordeal - Photo
In conclusion, “It Rains, It Pours” is a very recommended debut album. As next step, I advice to the band to develop, in a better way, the musical discourse of the 2nd part of the album. I hope that some serious labels will takes finally these promising Polish guys. GOOD LUCK! That is the same thing that will need to me for my theatrical performance…

Vote: 86

Flavio “Claustrofobia” Adducci

Tracklist:

1 – Depopulation of Io (intro)/ 2 – Cypress Mourning/ 3 – The Stepfather/ 4 – The Sinless/ 5 – Your Mother – Slave/ 6 – Unimagined, Unwritten, Unseen/ 7 – Dememorization (interlude)/ 8 – Days That Didn’t Make it/ 9 – The Animal/ 10 – Man from the Water/ 11 – Here Be Lions/ 12 – Depopulation of Earth

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