France perhaps isn’t the first place you’d expect to come across good-quality bands playing black metal but Orob, who play a fantastic blend of both prog and black metal, is a band you really should watch out for.
Their new EP Into the Room of Perpetual Echoes is an absolutely excellent effort and really plays on the band’s strengths. It’s different enough to stand out from the crowd, but not so different that it’s uncomfortable or difficult to listen to, which can only be a good thing.
First full song The Pathway is a particularly good inclusion, with the vocals being a real high point. There’s this fantastic amount of power to them and that’s before you take the furiously energetic instrumentation acting as a driving force behind them. The track as a whole is a tremendous start to the EP and really helps it get moving.
Celestial Abandon is another good track, definitely leaning more towards the proggy side of their sound. The clean vocals sound incredible atop of the sparse instrumentation at the start and when the full band kicks in with all its jaw-dropping glory, you really need to take a step back to appreciate the intricacies of it all.
Into the Room of Perpetual Echoes is a great release and really showcases what Orob is capable of – it will be interesting to see what route the band will take with its next release.
8/10
