It’s no secret in the local Los Angeles underground music scene who currently shares the heavy metal crown: Silverlake’s My Ruin and Glendale’s disturbing but musically brilliant black metal act: Orcus. Orcus may not have the veteran status that others at their same level do right now, but they make up for that with some of the most inspired and inventive musicianship this genre has ever been graced with. Their debut EP entitled “Birth” is nothing short of epic, with flashing lyrically-invested moments of brutal thrash, along with razor-sharpened, blood-soaked moments of progressive black metal poignancy at its most technical. More to the point, Dimmu Borgir and Cradle Of Filth are in big time trouble.
Recorded and mixed by Anna Cummings at Poison Carousel Productions, “Birth” and its first track ‘Defiled Throne’ have clearly set the new standard on how this now mostly formulaic genre is going to be judged. This is the ‘Kill Em All’ that the black metal genre never has truly heard, and yes, that includes Venom’s legendary “Black Metal” album, which I first listened to before I was even a teenager. This song starts out like you’re lost somewhere between hell and back, in an all out synthesized mosaic of harm to come and hatred that lies in wait provided from the wizardry of keyboardist, Andrew De Lange. The super-chunk gallop riff that is interwoven in the orchestral-frenzy from lead guitarist Hayg Terzian is just as sinister and evil sounding as the rest of what’s going on here. Dead on the mark greatness.
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http://www.metalunderground.com/reviews/details.cfm?releaseid=475
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