Posts Tagged Jazz

Orthrelm/Behold​.​.​. The Arctopus | S/T Split

behold I thought this was the first official recording released by Behold… The Arctopus. It is not, but it is in fact the shortest, and cheapest, which is the real reason I got it. I’ve been meaning to get some records from those guys for a while since I started following them on Myspace if you can believe that.

Orthrelm I first got into through Kill Rock Stars when they were giving out a lot of free downloads. Seems odd now, because they seem so Metal; at least, they fit in perfectly into the current Weirdo Metal scene. But guitar hero Mick Barr started out in the KRS stable playing bass for Quix*O*Tic. And this side project fit right along with the spazz-math/noise rock of labelmates Hella and Nervous Cop. So KRS was featuring a couple Orthrelm tracks even tho the first record came out on Toletta.

Interesting? Dubious? Why even mention it. Why even spend time thinking about this footnote of a release? It’s referred to as an EP but it’s merely a split single, a song a piece, neither over 5 1/2 minutes. And not the most memorable tunes. It would be hard to tell which band was which if you didn’t know what to listen for. It’s two solid blocks of blistering instrumental intricacy-core. Speed Metal at 78, the record broken and randomly glued back together. The thing I’m into here is that these two bands that sound so similar got there in opposite ways.

BTA is inspired solely by extreme Technical Death Metal bands and Modern Classical composers. Every note of their songs is written on paper and then played back as precisely as possible. (It should be mentioned many bands write this way but do not have the chops or will to put in the practice hours to really perform their own music.)

Orthrelm rely more on improv techniques coming from a Jazz influence. This interview with Mick Barr explains how this works within his style of Metal. Knowing this, it’s much easier to hear the difference between the compositions. Orthrelm does not have the kind of doubled stop/start parts of BTA. (Which actually reminds me of bebop, but apparently that’s a coincidence.)

This record may be of interest to fans of Krallice, as it is the first meeting on record of main members Mick Barr and Colin Marston, as far as I tell. Altho they are on separate songs. And the music has zero to do with Black Metal. Some people might say Krallice is not really Black Metal, well, this record is really, really not Black Metal. It’s all relative. But check it out. There’s not much to risk only losing about 9 minutes of your time, that’s shorter than most individual Krallice songs. I think I’ve listened to this more than I would an LP of either band, it’s pretty enjoyable once you get into it. But I’m going to get those LPs still. In time.

TRIVIA: Orthrelm’s song Pithot 1 may not be an invented adjective for a situation as hot as a pit, but a French word for male goose [the word is from “Jersey French”] Seven years later, they have yet to follow up with the implied sequel. Maybe there’s a pun I’m missing. BTA’s song Paincave is just about a cave of pain, I think. But who knows.

download/CD/7" on bandcamp

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