Oreyeon – Equations For The Useless
Heavy Psych Sounds – 2022
Rock, Stoner, Psych, Metal, Doom, Grunge, Prog
Rated: *****
The mind is a weird and wonderous thing, and yes, something might be wrong with me. But for some strange and possibly insane reason, the fourth track, If, took me back in time to somewhere around 1994 when Belgian rock outfit dEUS released their Suds & Soda single. Sure, If, brings out that back and forth, staccato rhythmic approach as well, but that’s about it, there is absolutely no reason why that awesome If track on the new Equations For the Useless album by Italian quartet Oreyeon should remind me of dEUS. But it does anyway. It’s also very odd that I keep returning to If, over and over, and it does not feel fair to the rest of the album. For this third Oreyeon album is stunning, from opening track It Was Time to final song The Protocol. Imploring much more progressive touches to their doom grunge, the album touches on subjects like depression and dealing with all aspects of living. Even though opening track might feel a bit muddy or a bit too crowded, it sets you up perfectly for all the atavistic stoner riffage, the grunge tones to come and that amazing second track Pazuzu. Imploring more use of vocals, and letting them shine from front to back, that second track builds its sound like a proper cathedral of heaviness. Within the space of only four minutes, they will see you from here to the end of your tether. Where demons will dance around your mind like a twisted whirlwind. Luckily there’s the atmospheric opening of almost ten-minute-long title track Equations For The Useless to settle you down, give you air and open your psyche for the manic doom and grunge to come. That impressive basswork, those soaring vocals giving it all a more huge and cosmic quality, turning ever more towards a darker desert edge as the track progresses. And then comes If, once again, staccato riffage, hooked in your brain before you can say, If. The drums slowly bringing it all home, home to a desert generator party that is. And that dripping, slippery basswork before the final push towards the end of the song, is as steamy as it is sexy. Perhaps, If, has warped my brain so much, that Downward Spirals comes across as the track that morphed into something else a bit too often, losing some of the initial punch the song might have had at the moment of conception. Therefor the later shift in approach, when the break slowly meanders on, returning to the same tempo, burying the wandering guitars under immense layers of grunge, and breaking it all down again, spiraling slowly upward, before finishing like a throbbing pulse of energy, feels like the proper setting for Oreyeon’s Downward Spirals. Stately, imposing, The Protocol ends the album, with a bass heavy fade out that begs you to start over. If it weren’t for If…
(Written by JK)
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