Release
date: January 26th 2018. Label: The Company KC. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl
Strange
Worlds/Fierce Gods – Tracklisting
Harvest
Kakegoe
Mythical Sleep
Cephalopod
Excension
Pleasure Delayer
Return of Supertoad
Ghosts
Members
Jeremy Isaacson –
Guitar
Bryan Sedey –
Guitar
Greg Koelling –
Drums
Review
Orphans
Of Doom debut album Strange Worlds/Fierce Gods is a mighty
throwback to the good old days of Sludge/Post-Metal with heavy
elements of Doom/Stoner Metal grooves. Throw in a dash of
psychedelic weirdness and you have an album that takes the early
thunderous days of Baroness and injects it with the spaced out
worldly sounds of VYGR. This album sets the whole tone and structure
of the album with the excellent opening track - Harvest.
As
Orphans Of Doom play heavy doomy and sludgy sounds with the
impressive harsh growls making a confident appearance. The music
veers from heavy sludge/doom and post-metal moments to the more
melodic Psychedelic Prog/Stoner moments. Some cool keyboards/organs
appear towards the end that reminds me of VYGR's debut album
Hypersleep. Orphans Of Doom offer a more complex and perhaps heavier
progressive style of music. The chuggish heavy metal guitars that
appear towards the end were a very cool surprise. As Orphans Of Doom
expertly mix up the different styles of music they play throughout
the album.
Second
track - Kakegoe - opens with impressive drumming from Greg before the
heavy psychedelic guitars appear. The song carries on the chaotic
sounds from the opening song and the densely heavy vocals soon gives
way to impressive psychedelic guitars that Progressive Sludge Metal
fans will find much to enjoy. Orphans Of Doom quickly change styles
to a heavier and thrashier style of Doom Metal. The album doesn't shy
from its post-metallic roots with the whole mood of the album being
eerie familiar but maintaining its own style amongst the progressive
nature of the music.
Third
song - Mythical Sleep - conveys a much darker story as the vocals are
more angrier and the music remains firmly within the realm of
Doom/Sludge Metal. The band still shows their mighty range of
progressive rock guitar wizardry on this song. Perhaps another reason
why Orphans Of Doom are so very hard to describe at times. Sometimes
the album feels that a whole bunch of different bands played on
certain songs and that's quite impressive indeed. The vocals are
perhaps the only constant part of the album that never changes.
Fourth
Track - Cephalopod - is perhaps my favourite song on the album as the
song has a few Thin Lizzy and Mastodon style moments with the guitars
playing a familiar sound.
The
second half of the album continues the psychedelic doom/sludge rock
odyssey with songs such as Excension, Pleasure Delayer, Return Of
Supertoad and Ghosts allowing Orphans Of Doom to experiment with
their sound yet again. Psychedelic Rock/Metal is a huge part of
Orphans Of Doom's overall sound and that's when the albums most
exciting moments happen as well.
No
matter which genre you feel most associated within the
Doom/Sludge/Stoner and Post-Metal spectrum you cannot deny how good
Orphans Of Doom are actually are. They deliver the goods with Strange
Worlds / Fierce Gods and I can see why Joshua at The Company KC
signed the band to his label.
This
is a band with hopefully huge potential and longevity within the
Doom/Sludge/Post-Metal scene. When this album is released, I urge you
all to check these guys out ASAP. They are definitely ones to look
out for.
Words
by Steve Howe
Thanks to The Company
KC for the promo. Strange Worlds/Fierce Gods will be available to
buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via The Company KC from January 26th
2018.
Links:
