Dorre Premiere “Extracted at the Moment of Death”; Fall River out Feb. 1
Belgian usually-instrumentalists Dorre are set to play a release show Jan. 30 for their debut album, Fall River, at Het Depot in Leuven. The official release date is Feb. 1, and a lot of what the record titled after the Massachusetts town where the Lizzie Borden murders took place has to offer you can hear immediately in the first 10 seconds of opener “Satisfying Sadistic Urges.” It begins with sharply-toned, intense fits of starts and stops, metallic in their aggression, but with a tonal presence that speaks to what’s to come as a heavy work all the same.
They’re quickly under way in “Satisfying Sadistic Urges” — which, somewhat amazingly, is not also the title of a Cannibal Corpse song — and they maintain the directed sensibility through about the first two minutes before breaking to silence and minimalist blues licks, then crash back in and make their way back from whence they came with surprising fluidity given how far out they go. The four-piece of guitarists Etherik Heyns and Adriaan De Raymaeker, bassist Andrew Hockley and drummer Wolf Overloop don’t shy away from the violence of their subject matter on the six-song/33-minute self-released outing, but neither are they neglecting a sense of atmosphere in order to convey the more physical side of the music. As they pull back on the tempo with “Force the Victims,” they’re finding a balance between the sides — the airy guitar lead atop the slamming march in the second half of “Force the Victims,” for example — and it’s in toying with that balance that Fall River makes its encouraging impression.
They cap side A with the more progressively-styled “Maximum State of Emotional Arousal,” which feels loosened up and boasts some subtle but choice snare from Overloop that carries the band from the early meanderings into a more fervent and insistent chug, some more winding and toward a particularly noisy wash of guitar soloing. As they began side A with “Satisfying Sadistic Urges” on high-go, they do the same via the two-minute “The Greatest Amount of Life Force” on side B, which stops just short of leading directly into 
“Extracted at the Moment of Death,” on which Dorre welcome vocalist Laura Donnelly of Edinburgh, Scotland’s King Witch.
If you’re going to have a guest vocalist, Donnelly is an absolute powerhouse, and she brings a classic metal declarative sense to “Extracted at the Moment of Death,” tapping into Sabbathian patterning with the same penchant for melodies she showed early last year on her own band’s debut, Under the Mountain (review here). As they approach the midsection, a layer of lead guitar smoothly makes its way in and adds flourish, then the band breaks into a quieter midsection, that warmer lead tone gradually emerging again before they charge back with the nodding riff and the band’s well-earned big finish. It’s worth pointing out how well Donnelly fits with Dorre. In some cases with instrumental bands bringing in a guest vocalist, there’s almost a sense of their doing it begrudgingly, and so it doesn’t always mesh, but Donnelly sounds equal parts natural and righteous on the seven-minute track, and one hopes it’s not the last time these two parties collaborate.
In part because the album is short, the closing title-track — which is also the longest at 7:33 — is inherently more than an afterthought after the surge of energy that is “Extracted at the Moment of Death,” and it ends Fall River with a suitably creeping, moody malevolence, finding its footing early in a mostly-linear build that plays out across its span until wind-ish swirling noise brings it to a conclusion. It will be interesting over time to hear if one side or the other in Dorre‘s sound wins out, but the way they draw from their influences across Fall River, their steadiness of theme and their efficient delivery all come together to make the release function as ably as it does. There may be growing still to do, but the band already have a clear sense of where they’re headed, and I wouldn’t be surprised either if they continued to find their way in darker storytelling.
It’s my pleasure today to host the premiere of “Extracted at the Moment of Death.” Obviously it’s something of a standout, being the only song with vocals, but I think it still represents the album well, and basically any chance you get to hear Donnelly sing, you should take it.
Some comment from the band follows the track below. Please enjoy:
Adriaan De Raymaeker on “Extracted at the Moment of Death”:
This one started out based on an older track that had started to grate on us, we completely reworked it keeping only parts of the riffs. We did a couple of preproductions of it and while listening all of us just thought “this needs vocals”. We had played some shows in the UK and Scotland, King Witch opened for us in London and I knew I wanted to do something with Laura [Donnelly], their vocalist, in the future as soon as I heard her sing. So we got in touch, sent her the best pre-production we had and told her to go to town on it, giving her only the basic background story of what we wanted to be portrayed in the song. She killed it from the get go. We recorded the instrumental in Belgium, which was pretty tricky, I slammed my guitar through an organ simulator pedal, we dropped cases of metal scrap on the floor for snare accents, all kinds of crazy stuff that you probably don’t really hear in the recordings but made us very happy. Laura recorded with her partner Jamie [Gilchrist] based on our ProTools session and again, killed it. It was a great experience and something we’ll definitely be doing again in the future!
I especially like the very funky, groovy middle part of the song instrumental wise, it’s so different from our other stuff and it breaks the song very nicely.
After a two year journey of writing, rewriting, sound-searching, recording and collaborating with profoundly talented artists and partners we can finally say it’s here. We are very proud to be able to present our upcoming full album: a dark and murky sensory undertaking, wandering through the alluring town of Fall River.
The album will be released on the 1st of February on high quality, 180gr vinyl. The first pressing will get a limited edition, consisting of 100 coloured albums, as well as 200 black slabs of wax.
Dorre Fall River release show event page
Tags: Belgium, Dorre, Dorre Fall River, Fall River, Leuven, Unsigned bands
