post metal / progressive
Just a few days ago, I was talking about the importance of cover art. This noble art alone has sold millions of albums. Heck, some of my favorite albums are in my collection mainly because of the cover. That's why I bought them back in the days, to overload my poor parents with the nasty covers of Cannibal Corpse, Death, Napalm Death and Sepultura. The right cover art says a lot about the respective album. It can make or break it, or at least raise some serious questions. In this case, the question is: will this loaf of bread taste fresh and delicious or old, dry and infected with fungus? And also: what would happen if I grill this thing with cheese. But let's focus on the music.
The biography throws some big names around. "For fans of: Neurosis, Cult Of Luna and Russian Circles." In a way, that is spot-on, be it for the fact that all members in Swiss band Orso keep their mouths shut while they play, and that is a huge plus in my opinion. 'Paninoteca' is loaded with instrumental rock music, heavy, immersive and atmospheric. Intense post metal passages abbreviate with lengthy post rock pluckings. To guide all these riffs and strings-flirts, the band enlisted an energetic beast of a drummer. His contribution adds a lot of drive to the music, which is a second plus.
The references to Russian Circles are plenty but I feel that Orso is not merely copying these post-metal giants. These songs, with an early highlight in 'Jambon-Beurre', come off as a bit more progressive and experimental. You can still bang your head to this, but you can also sense that there's more going on that just a collection of riffing. The narrative songwriting is close to perfect and the band shows confidence. Take the video track 'Mitraillette' for example, a doom infused tune which main riff will rock you off your socks.
Perhaps the only exception to the blend of post-whatever, is the short and spooky drone/ambient intermezzo 'Jucy Lucy', which introduces the magnum opus of this album, the long 'Monte Cristo'. The latter somewhat reminds me of Tiny Fingers or 65DaysOfStatic but it's also a typical Orso song. This far into the album you'll recognize these tunes as typical Orso tunes. Why? Well, because Orso have found their sound in an overloaded scene: a bit like Russian Circles but grittier, more experimental and unforgiving. This is a pretty damn good post-metal album.
Serge
The biography throws some big names around. "For fans of: Neurosis, Cult Of Luna and Russian Circles." In a way, that is spot-on, be it for the fact that all members in Swiss band Orso keep their mouths shut while they play, and that is a huge plus in my opinion. 'Paninoteca' is loaded with instrumental rock music, heavy, immersive and atmospheric. Intense post metal passages abbreviate with lengthy post rock pluckings. To guide all these riffs and strings-flirts, the band enlisted an energetic beast of a drummer. His contribution adds a lot of drive to the music, which is a second plus.
The references to Russian Circles are plenty but I feel that Orso is not merely copying these post-metal giants. These songs, with an early highlight in 'Jambon-Beurre', come off as a bit more progressive and experimental. You can still bang your head to this, but you can also sense that there's more going on that just a collection of riffing. The narrative songwriting is close to perfect and the band shows confidence. Take the video track 'Mitraillette' for example, a doom infused tune which main riff will rock you off your socks.
Perhaps the only exception to the blend of post-whatever, is the short and spooky drone/ambient intermezzo 'Jucy Lucy', which introduces the magnum opus of this album, the long 'Monte Cristo'. The latter somewhat reminds me of Tiny Fingers or 65DaysOfStatic but it's also a typical Orso song. This far into the album you'll recognize these tunes as typical Orso tunes. Why? Well, because Orso have found their sound in an overloaded scene: a bit like Russian Circles but grittier, more experimental and unforgiving. This is a pretty damn good post-metal album.
Serge
