Orationem - Orationem (88/100)
Feb 29, 2016 15:40:18 GMT -6
Thomas Eversole, Kerrick, and 1 more like this
Post by Deleted on Feb 29, 2016 15:40:18 GMT -6
Orationem - Orationem
Year: 2015
Genre: Black Metal
DISCLAIMER: This is a project of Thomas Eversole, the administrator of this forum. Everyone on The Blackest Light knows Thomas, myself included. I will try not to let this affect my opinion of his music or the content of this review. Thomas did not ask me to write this review; I chose to.
After experimenting with black/death metal in the form of Ankou Awaits for a few years, Thomas decided to go back to pure CBM with Orationem. And though I would consider this to be straight-up black metal, it's important to note its uniqueness. This album doesn't evoke the same feelings as typical black metal would. There's a certain characteristic to it that prevents it from creating a dark or a light mood, instead hovering somewhere in the grey area between the two. It seems almost melancholy but it's just uplifting enough to invalidate that. It's a rather interesting atmosphere that I've never heard another band create, and I love it. The production is a major factor in creating this effect. The guitars are mixed in such a way that creates a very deep and full sound (I even heard another Orationem review refer to the "bass", despite the fact that Thomas doesn't use a bass). The guitar sound is very smooth and round, rather than sharp and aggressive. With this production comes an element of murkiness that makes some of the riffs blend together. It doesn't create the "wall of noise" effect; instead it obscures some of the riffs, causing the highest notes to prevail over a noisy background of lower notes. It's this odd effect, along with the entrancing effect of constant tremolo, that helps create the unorthodox atmosphere. Additionally, an ambient section is present at the end of each song and leads into the next, further developing the mood of the album.
The actual composition of the album is superb. Each riff is well-crafted and memorable. Due to Thomas' unusual guitar tuning, none of the riffs sound cliché, and none sound like they were stolen from other bands. It feels original. Although Thomas uses most of the riffs many times, they never become exhausting. This is mostly due to the variation of the drums. The drumming is fantastic throughout the entire album. It is mixed in extremely well, loud but not so loud that it drowns anything out. The sheer complexity of the drumming and the fact that he manages to change things up so often is where the variety comes in. There's also variety within the riffs as well. Some are slower, changing pitch less frequently and floating along above the noise background, while others are extremely powerful and attention-grabbing. Thomas' vocals are certainly not my favorite, but they are very interesting. Not bad at all, but not great. I wouldn't say that they're held back or unaggressive, but I feel like they could be more powerful. I wish they sounded more like the growls you'd hear from a typical European band, but I guess it's nice to have an outlier from the standard.
My only real complaint about the album is the fact that it gets very samey. The guitars are tremolo all the way through and by the end, everything feels like it blurs together. Thomas partially fixed this on the follow-up with its doomier, slower title track, but it is still a slight issue.
This is overall a very solid piece of unusual but great black metal that any general CBM fan should pick up. Thomas is selling copies at a very low price, so I'd recommend purchasing one.
88/100
-CrimsonWarrior
Buy it directly from Thomas:
orationem.bigcartel.com/product/orationem-compact-disc
Year: 2015
Genre: Black Metal
DISCLAIMER: This is a project of Thomas Eversole, the administrator of this forum. Everyone on The Blackest Light knows Thomas, myself included. I will try not to let this affect my opinion of his music or the content of this review. Thomas did not ask me to write this review; I chose to.
After experimenting with black/death metal in the form of Ankou Awaits for a few years, Thomas decided to go back to pure CBM with Orationem. And though I would consider this to be straight-up black metal, it's important to note its uniqueness. This album doesn't evoke the same feelings as typical black metal would. There's a certain characteristic to it that prevents it from creating a dark or a light mood, instead hovering somewhere in the grey area between the two. It seems almost melancholy but it's just uplifting enough to invalidate that. It's a rather interesting atmosphere that I've never heard another band create, and I love it. The production is a major factor in creating this effect. The guitars are mixed in such a way that creates a very deep and full sound (I even heard another Orationem review refer to the "bass", despite the fact that Thomas doesn't use a bass). The guitar sound is very smooth and round, rather than sharp and aggressive. With this production comes an element of murkiness that makes some of the riffs blend together. It doesn't create the "wall of noise" effect; instead it obscures some of the riffs, causing the highest notes to prevail over a noisy background of lower notes. It's this odd effect, along with the entrancing effect of constant tremolo, that helps create the unorthodox atmosphere. Additionally, an ambient section is present at the end of each song and leads into the next, further developing the mood of the album.
The actual composition of the album is superb. Each riff is well-crafted and memorable. Due to Thomas' unusual guitar tuning, none of the riffs sound cliché, and none sound like they were stolen from other bands. It feels original. Although Thomas uses most of the riffs many times, they never become exhausting. This is mostly due to the variation of the drums. The drumming is fantastic throughout the entire album. It is mixed in extremely well, loud but not so loud that it drowns anything out. The sheer complexity of the drumming and the fact that he manages to change things up so often is where the variety comes in. There's also variety within the riffs as well. Some are slower, changing pitch less frequently and floating along above the noise background, while others are extremely powerful and attention-grabbing. Thomas' vocals are certainly not my favorite, but they are very interesting. Not bad at all, but not great. I wouldn't say that they're held back or unaggressive, but I feel like they could be more powerful. I wish they sounded more like the growls you'd hear from a typical European band, but I guess it's nice to have an outlier from the standard.
My only real complaint about the album is the fact that it gets very samey. The guitars are tremolo all the way through and by the end, everything feels like it blurs together. Thomas partially fixed this on the follow-up with its doomier, slower title track, but it is still a slight issue.
This is overall a very solid piece of unusual but great black metal that any general CBM fan should pick up. Thomas is selling copies at a very low price, so I'd recommend purchasing one.
88/100
-CrimsonWarrior
Buy it directly from Thomas:
orationem.bigcartel.com/product/orationem-compact-disc