ORO – Vid Vägs Ände
Release Date: 1st December 2023
Label: Hammerheart Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Sludge Metal, Post-Sludge, Doom, Progressive.
FFO: Cult of Luna, Mastodon, Gojira, Neurosis, The Ocean, Isis, Amenra, Burst.
Review By: Rick Farley
“Oro was born beneath the Kilsbergen mountains, in the shadows of the deep forests that swathe those rocky slopes in 2014 and in the brief years of their existence, they have forged a sound like no other.”
As good of an opening statement about a band that I’ve read in a long time.
Swedish post-metal sludge quintet ORO are back with their second full length Vid Vägs Ände, releasing on Hammerheart Records at the beginning of December 2023. An album that feels like the next level of songwriting, production, and maturity. The band’s debut album Djupets Kall which was released in 2019, is quite good as it stands, but there’s something about this one that really draws you in and never fully lets go. Exhilarating and exhausting in equal measure, this album is a stunning journey of haunting darkness, purpose, heart-rending and gloomy brutishness.
It’s worth noting the album was recorded, mixed, and engineered by Jakob Linnèr at Mud Lake Audio, Örebro, Sweden. The mastering was done by Tony Lindgren and cover artwork by Johhny Doe. All essential elements to the success of this record, as well as the breathtaking compositions.
Wanting to add to the closeness from which they came, Vid Vägs Ände was recorded entirely in their native tongue. The vocals ranging from anguished roars, vicious growls, and raspy whispers all sang in Swedish adds to the albums overall mystic quality. If you don’t already speak the language, it will ignite your senses in a more intimate way, rather than relying on just the message from being given the words. Five tracks at forty minutes of sludgy, chugging guitars with a backdrop of airy clean passages that linger and twist your consciousness somewhere between crushing obliteration and a deep out-of-body experience. Rhythmic drums and driving bass guide you through the dark cerebral storms of the emotionally intense soundscape. Walls of dense, slow churning riffs, linger like a plague of locusts, patiently waiting for the exact right moment to swarm. This album does not rely on being too Avant Garde or leaning too far on the post side of things like many bands in this genre do. Instead, ORO veers outside the lines into atmospheric, visceral bliss effectively when it calls for it, but remains devastatingly heavy while doing it. You’ll easily get lost in the album, but the album will never lose you.
Opening track Arvet & Tystnaden swirls with a granite airiness, crashing waves of sustained chord patterns wash over you, smashing your frail bones. The pulsing chug of piercing sharp guitars, and surging bassline sound anxious and tense. It dynamically shifts from immense to bleak, then beautiful and back again. Aggressive, sombre, lurching yet still accessible and hypnotically groovy. The velvety clean guitars of title track Vid Vägs Ände shimmer beneath the heavily rhythmic riff, just begging you to embrace its deeper introspective intent. The distortion of the guitars buzz warmly without all the extra murkiness typically associated with sludge metal, keeping the absolutely mammoth, engulfing atmosphere fully immersed with gripping clarity. The softer parts of the track are more expressive and emotional against the ungodly heaviness. Gruff bellows, coming from deep down, sound tortured and yearning. A vehement burst of black metal influenced tremolo picking leads itself into a rich bass toned passage underneath clean guitars that are calm and soothing. Album closer Treriksröset is the shortest song on the record but the most impactful. Its hopeful melodies swirl in an ethereal unrest. The track is emotionally heavy as well as being weighted down with distorted chords and aggressive riffs. There’s a maintained sense of longing for completion here, which never is realized, simply because the sustained guitars just drift away into the unknown. An open ending to an incredible album that leaves you wanting more. This is an easy one, get this now. 
(5 / 5)
