Orthodox-Axis, (2015)

Orthodox-Axis, (2015)

“Take me, I am the drug; take me, I am hallucinogenic.”

Salvador Dali

By: Ghost Writer

Listening to Gran Poder and to Amanecer en Puerta Oscura got me really interested in Sevilla, Spain's Orthodox, a band that truly knew how to carve their own niche within the doom metal genre, the band, rather than base the whole weight of their music in guitars, they seemed more interested in develop a style that reclined more in atmosphere to achieve a crushing heavy and dark sound, Sentencia, their mind twisting record from 2009, was perhaps too much too soon, it was a band reinventing themselves and expanding the genre in quite amusing ways, embracing Spanish folk music and free jazz, I remember describing them like finding Albert Ayler playing free jazz after days of nonstop, the band sounded like a corpse like version of a free jazz trio, it was truly disturbing, but it was a defiantly original statement, I must confess that after that monumental masterpiece, 2011's Baal was a total deception, it was an unexplainable retreat towards common guitar based heavy metal, it seemed as if a completely different band were impersonating the original, it was quite a shock.

I read somewhere else that the band was focusing on alternative projects and for four years it seemed like the bad was gone for good, but you can't count out those living dead jazz greats that recorded Sentencia, Orthodox is back now with a new record called Axis, an album that shows a band decided to conceal the past and present in order to regain their greatness, Axis is not exactly Sentencia II, but a definite step forward, a clear sign that Orthodox has recovered for a near fatal move and is getting finally back on track.

In Suyo es el Rostro de la Muerte...the band gets really close to the progressive sound of the mighty King Crimson, circa that great Red album, the band's sound gets brutally boosted by the accompaniment of a brass section and the amazing bass and drum interplay developed by the remaining duo of Marco Serrato and Borja Díaz, then quickly changing gears for the explosive Crown for a Mole, where the maniac vocals appear and give a more intense dimension to the music, as the duo develops and amazing musical hurricane of hyperactive drums and a menacing lurking bass.

Medea sends the duo back to the glorious and lugubrious days of Sentencia, it has that epic Spanish feel the band conjured so well on that painfully but delicious record, the bad adjust to the sonic rumblings of fellow experimental doom band Om, and using additional musicians to strengthen and expand their sound, with Serrato's bass working as an unstoppable war thank always reaching its objective, then the band gets really close to a darks cosmic sound similar to the great Black Sabbath on Portum Sirenes thanks to a solid drum work.

There are great sound moments rarely heard on a "doom" record, and of course this is not your average doom record, Axis/Equinox is a powerful example, with the band reaching full free jazz excitement on the tune, and impress way of embracing chaos and invoking a terrific beast, then again repeating the mind altering trip on the astonishing Io, Sabacio, lo, lo! With the band even introducing a true game changer in the form of African Gnawa music, showing the band acquired wisdom before unleashing the all-out attack of the red hot Canícula.

Axis closes with another great epic in the form of... Y a Ella le Será Revelado, with the band mutating once again, going for acoustic bass and trombone, displaying satisfying passages of pure ecstatic, free form and wildly inspired music, that portentous Orthodox that conceived Sentencia appears to be back, the band has regained that magic and is putting it again to practice on this record, it might not be as devastating as Sentencia, but is a record that shows Orthodox getting back on track for another epic display of power.