(Advance Copy) Orodrim - Thanatocracy

Hailing from Houston, Orodrim’s lineage can be traced back to Austin, Texas when in 2017 Oromë began unearthing the atmospheres, and moods that would one day culminate in Thanatocracy. Which will be released upon the earth October 31st, 2025. Organizing the abstract of these excavations led to two previous EP’s: The Void Gazer, and Metaphysics of the Hangman.

Thanatocracy discards the stock elements that make a lot of contemporary Black Metal bands feel pretentious, such as screeching vocals, and buzzing guitars that sound like they’re coming out of a possessed answering machine. Nothing you hear will be disingenuous enough to have us believe that you can’t get your hands on decent recording technology in this day, and age. Nor will you encounter a glossy product, over-polished by some studio wizard who took all your beer money, to tell you how he thinks it should sound. What you will get is the raw ethically sourced production one would expect from a DIY Black Metal Project, with everything being written, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Oromë himself, in the dark recess of his bedroom. Using tools accessible to all, Oromë has proven that with a little bit of know-how, a lot of heart, and some seriously crushing riffs, one's voice can be heard amongst the cacophonous noise of industry.

We open hard with both “Bodies Upon the Gears” and “Beyond Orwellian.” The first half of the album could be an epic all on its own, with melodies that lurch out of the ferocity, and linger at the edge of the wood before disappearing back into a sadistic machinery of emphatic grooves, and vehement beats.

“Funeral Ecology” breaks up the madness with a peaceful, and beautifully picked interlude that proves how heavy silence can be when the noise goes away-like an escape to the mountains, from the grind of a monotonous city.

The second half of the album reigns doom supreme, with “Razor Wire Nation” and the eloquently titled "Perdition's Gaping Maw.” Riffs lurch across the land, heavy, and creeping, careening into a void of heavy metal leads, and double-bass blasts, reminding us that even though they’re imperceptible, the gears are always crawling, unhurried to deliver us to our fate. This is Orodrim, True Texas Black Metal.