Sunday, April 22, 2012

Orgone - The Goliath

God damn, what a technical monster this is.  It's another case of youtube recommending a "related video" to who knows what I was originally searching for.  Like it's namesake, The Goliath is devastating in it's intricate brutality, and yet somehow unknown?  Metal bloggers like me usually eat this shit up, so the problem must lie in the fact that it was released in 2007, before most of us had fully gotten on the blog bandwagon.  It's too bad, because this is the most interesting and painfully complex Death Metal I've heard in ages.  Unlike Prog-Death heroes Gorguts and Atheist (who are as "Death Metal" as it gets), Orgone definitely take from other distant genres like Post-Hardcore, Grind, and Mathcore.  A lot of those influences "Post-" can be heard in the slower, more ambient moments.  Even with those nice breaks, there's still plenty of explosive force that make up the meat of this album.  You know you're intrigued, so just do the damn thing!      



4 comments:

  1. Ha ha! Oh man, I used to be in this band. Here's a link to the demo with me on vocals:
    http://www.mediafire.com/?y9r8a9wwjmoz26h *

    I was supposed to be on the full length, but didn't make it that far with the band. The guitarist, Steve, is kind of a weird guy, sort of "difficult" to work with. Probably why there's a different vocalist on every record. There's even a copy of The Goliath somewhere with me doing vocals. Then they got Christian, who was a hardcore dude, and I think it works. I love The Goliath, even if I didn't leave the band on the most amicable of terms. But the drummer of Orgone, Justin Wharton, is the best drummer I've seen play in my entire life. No kidding. I used to just sit there at practice and be like hypnotized by his skills. He would blast during tom rolls! Also there's an unreleased full length from, like, 2009 called The Joyless Parson with my old roommate Geoff (who currently sings for The Faceless, incidentally) doing vocals, and he was the best fit for the band. I have a copy of The Joyless Parson, but I'm not really allowed to share it. My friend, Kent, from The Pax Cecilia** plays cello all over it. It's like Steve's black metal opus. It's the best thing Orgone's ever done and, sadly, most people will never hear it. There's some teaser tracks up on their myspace, but nothing substantial.

    Also, the bassist of Orgone, Andrew Ransom, is now in Integrity. And Justin, the drummer, lives in New York or something, I think. I still see Steve occasionally, though. Driving his mom's Ford Focus, weirder than ever, I'm sure. Anyway, great post. Sorry for the long comment, just made me nostalgic. But, see: not everyone was oblivious to this shit before the blog days.

    *http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Orgone -- if you guy to Past Members, you'll see I ain't foolin' ya. Raze Hell = Dutch Pearce. Also, my ex-girlfriend did the logo for us.(http://yellowleather.blogspot.com)

    ** http://dowerofrefuse.blogspot.com/2012/02/pax-cecilia.html -- The Pax Cecilia are seriously fucking amazing! Check out "Blessed are the Bonds."

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  2. Don't apologize, I appreciate all comments, especially the long ones. I was able to find a 320 rip of The Joyless Parson pretty easily on filestube. I only just skimmed over it, but it sounds pretty cool. I still haven't listened to The Pax yet, but I will soon. I guess the Pittsburgh scene is more prolific than I thought.

    Because of your name and what's on your blog, are you a christian scholar of some sort?

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  3. Awesome you found The Joyless Parson. Never underestimate the power of internet piracy. Let me know what you think of that. I think it's their best work. Steve (the guitarist) also had an indie rock band that was pretty cool, and more similar to Orgone than you'd expect. They're called Meadow, but I'm not sure if they've got anything out there. If you find anything, let me know.

    Regarding my having my own Metal-Archives page, I am not its author and I wasn't even aware of its existence until you pointed it out to me. Crazy.

    And regarding my nom de blog, well that's just a long story. It concerns the protagonist of a lengthy novel I've been writing, based on, among other things, the Odyssey and Dante's Inferno. I guess you could say I'm a Christian scholar, as I study the religion and other religions quite a bit in school, but I'm no Christian. Really, I'm an antheist wishing he believed. It's like Goethe (I think) said: "He who doubts believes, and the unbeliever believes the most."

    What's your story, man?

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  4. Sorry it took so long to respond, I like to do most of my blog stuff on saturday. By "story" you mean what are my views on religion? I'm kind of a "moderate" Atheist; I don't believe in any gods, but I do occasionally participate in religious rituals. Anything religious I do is part of reviving pre-Cook Hawaiian cultural practices like: chanting, prayer and drinking Awa (mild depressant). Drinking Awa somewhat conflicts with me being straightedge, even though It's about as mild as caffeine soda. So basically, I make compromises in order to reconnect with my old culture. I usually respect indigenous and pagan religions, but have a paticular disdain for Christianity (as I am oppressed by it's followers). I'm not too keen on Judaism or Islam either, but I don't know enough about those two to be truly against them. Overall, I'm against any religion that aims to convert people or that directly conflicts with my lifestye (i.e. against tattoos).

    I should also mention that many of my tattoos are vaguely religious in nature. There's a sunwheel on my arm, and I have a certain sharktooth motif that represents my aumakua (family god).

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