Everyone above a certain age is well aware of the scene in Pulp Fiction where Vincent viciously stabs a spike loaded with adrenaline right into Mia’s heart to bring her back from a heroin overdose. Immediately, the adrenaline makes her explode back to life.
That scene popped to mind in listening to the Orchid’s Curse song “Dead Idols” that we’re about to premiere — specifically, the way the song begins. There’s no warning, no introductory pause, just a sudden furious injection of scorching screams, hammering drums, and maniacally pulsating riffage.
And then the song becomes even more explosively unhinged, thanks to a turbocharged percussive eruption and a blizzard of tremolo’d chords. If you’re not bolt-upright and pop-eyed awake after that, it’s probably too late to call emergency services.
L-R: Alex Wrathell (Drums), Brian Jones (Guitar), Keith MacLeod (Guitar), Jason Szeto (Bass), Josh Hogan (Vocals)
The drums do briefly get steadier, even though you can still feel the bass in your bones, but the vocals are still raw and furious, and although the music soars, it still sears. And it jackhammers, and it writhes, and it blares, and it spirals way up toward the clouds. As if all that weren’t enough to get your own adrenaline pumping, the band also bring in a gloriously ecstatic guitar solo.
But there’s darkness in the song too, which rises like a daunting monolith through the melody, like a pillar of despair.
As you’ve now discovered for yourselves, “Dead Idols” is a high-octane banger, a fiery blend of thrash, melodic death metal, and hardcore, but with more facets to it than you might have expected from that spike-to-the-heart beginning.
It’s one of five songs on this Nova Scotia band’s new EP The Decay, which is set for release on June 16th. And like this particular song, the EP is itself a multi-faceted excursion that incorporates an array of influences. In other words, the songs aren’t all alike, but it must be said that the song the band picked for their first single, “Divided by Everything” (the new record’s penultimate track), is another furious scorcher.
If anything, it’s even more violent and berserk than “Dead Idols“. Of course the vocals are again a blood spray of unchained intensity, but in this song the soloing is almost supernatural in its aura, frightening but also eventually white-hot.
We haven’t seen Orchid’s Curse in the flesh, but they’ve toured with bands like 3 Inches of Blood and Goatwhore, and we’re told that their live shows kick up a storm. They’ve obviously now got some hell-raising new songs to show off (but eventually you’ll figure out that the new EP includes material that’s also atmospheric, sludgy, and even experimental). It’s up for pre-order now:
PRE-ORDER:
https://orchidscurse.bandcamp.com/
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