Album Review: Orme – Orme (Trepanation Recordings)

In an age of disposable and oversaturated music releases, Hertfordshire, UK’s slowest ever power trio Orme are here to buck all trends with a debut offering that dares to demand your time. Consisting of members of underground metal darlings Everest Queen and Praetorian, Orme’s self-titled debut double-album will be released on April 20th, 2023, via Trepanation Recordings on digital, 2CD and cassette tape formats.

It’s a mighty brave thing to make your debut album such a mammoth offering. An album that offers just two tracks, one of which coming in at around 42 minutes and one of which coming in around 54 minutes. Yes, you’ve read that right.

An experimental form of doom mixed with drone elements, Orme’s self-titled debut takes the top spot for the most ridiculous listen of the year. Ridiculous because of how inventive and how challenging it is. There is no avoiding the obvious, this is an acquired taste and few will have the attention span to last the full 95 minutes.

Yet, should you give it the time it deserves. The time it needs. You will be richly rewarded. Finding that the long runtime passes by in a haze of dark, doomy and droning atmosphere. It is exceptionally unique music that encapsulates a myriad of feelings. Some of which are felt strongly as this album plays out.

Feelings of discombobulation, feelings of fear, feelings of wonder, feelings of despondency, feelings of horror, feelings of admiration, feelings of loss, and feelings of hope. Regardless of if you want to or not, Orme will make you feel something.

None of this would matter if it wasn’t a compelling listen and it is every bit the effective monstrosity the descriptions tell you it is. Our words, other words… there is no justifiable way to sell this effectively beyond telling you that the experience is supremely different. For every person that calls this the work of geniuses, there will be another calling it nonsense. It will get as many 10/10s as it will 0/10s, such is the polarising nature of it.

Which is par for the course with drone in general but, as stated throughout, Orme are on another level. Their sound is downright freaking transcendent. When 95 minutes eases by with barely a distraction and the desire to go through it all over again immediately is there, you know you’ve experienced something special. There may never a debut as creative as this again, mainly because no one would be mad enough to do it.

Orme – Orme Track Listing:

1. Nazarene
2. Onward To Sarnath

Links

Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Trepanation Recordings