Most Orthrelm-related vinyl jackets look a lot like this, and by no means is that an unpleasing thing.
Orthrelm – “Urthiln” MP3/download
Krallice – “Dimensioinal Breakthrough” MP3/download
If you’ve been feasting HARD on the new Krallice record (only available on MP3 and CD so of course I don’t own it) you should probably know a little more about Krallice guitarist Mick Barr. You see, he’s … the SHIT. He’s played with the best, a few of the worst and several in between and he is perpetually soloing on his guitar; he practically molests his poor six-string, and it’s not like he’s trying too hard; conversely, he solos as if it were his god-given right, and I appreciate the difference. I’ve picked up several Orthrelm LPs over the years and found them to be interesting on a certain level but lacking overt replay power.
Their split with Touchdown is where I feel like I’m on Barr’s wavelength more than ever, mostly because drummer Josh Blair is at the top of his game and it sounds like he’s doing what he wants, not what Barr may or may not want. ‘Relm records like OV suffer from their insularity, whereas this one could lock in more than a few Primus/Les Claypool fans via Touchdown’s side, and Barr has a built-in gang of Upsilon Acrux-/Behold The Arctopus-/etc. freaks following his every move (much like I follow Zach Hill‘s) anyway, so no worries there.
Complete “THRASH-BASH-THANK-YOU-SMASH!” rock here, RIFE with the danger and daring you’d assume from a duo whose main interest, in this life, is to bomb the FUGG out of people. This entire record is a pop shot, a pinnacle, a climax, a head-of-a-pin PRICK. It’s jarring yet engrossing, consistently surging to new heights despite the fact that it constantly seems there will be no fresh ground to tread.
If Orthrelm were a tennis player they’d be John McEnroe on uncut coke; if they were a mythological BEAst they’d be the one from Dragon Slayer; if they were a natural disaster they would be the Sumatra earthquakes (and subsequent tidal wave) circa 2004; if they were a movie they would be Shaun Of The Living Dead; get this picture? Kapish?
Good. Oh, and the album art of Orthrelm is of-a-piece and often mind-bottling (yes, I used “mind-bottling”), so I included this Touchdown split 12-inch in my Album Of Art series. You cool with that?
Tomorrow: Babe, Terror‘s new album, Preparing a Voice to Meet the People Coming …
