Tech Death Thursday: Stream Dormant Ordeal’s The Grand Scheme of Things In Full
Got your album of the year lists set? Great! Time to ruin them.
Much ado was made of Dormant Ordeal’s 2016 album, We Had It Coming, probably on account of it being really good. It drew comparisons to bands like death metal era Behemoth for its intensity and Decapitated for their technical aptitude, but in retrospect, these comparisons didn’t really do it justice (and not just because the aforementioned acts have some, uh, history behind them). In revisiting that album, it’s much more its own thing than was initially credited, and it was laid the groundwork for their most current effort.
The Grand Scheme of Things is the ideation of that sound that was explored on We Had It Coming, a full realization of the band’s songwriting prowess. Admittedly, this isn’t the most “tech” death metal album you’ll hear, but the band’s incredibly tight performance, raw speed, and sneaky progressive tendencies make it more than your typical death metal record. It’s similar to something like Hath or a more melodic take on Hideous Divinity‘s sound, despite what the Horror God-meets-Ulcerate sound of the lead single “Poetry Doesn’t Work On Whores” might lead one to believe. Speed is a near constant on this record, but it’s more in the performance than the compositions; that is to say, there’s lots of tremolo picking, blastbeats, and double bass runs, but the pace at which the notes move, the actual changes in the melody, are measured and steady enough that they’re all distinct.
And those melodies are great, full of unique ideas that keep it from feeling like a run-of-the-mill melodeath album. Simple things like going up to a pedal tone rather than down in “Bright Constellations” to the thick layers of background guitar on “Sides of Defence” to the cymbal and tom work on closer “The Borders of Our Language Are Not The Borders of Our World” give the songs tons of texture, and the dynamic chording in the upper register creates and releases tension in an incredibly sublime manner. No matter how you approach it, this album is a fantastic listen.
But hey, you didn’t come here to read me prattling on about how the music works; you came here for the stream. You can hear it all right here, right now in its full glory:
The Grand Scheme of Things releases tomorrow, December 3rd, on Selfmadegod Records. You can find Dormant Ordeal on Facebook as well; be sure to show them some love. That’s all for now, and until next time,
Stay Tech
