Seems odd to say it, but Crows isn’t the first 18-minute single that Netherlands-based post-metal four-piece Ortega have released in their time together. The last one was late-2012’s The Serpent Stirs (review here), and as the follow-up to that and reportedly the precursor to a new full-length album, Crows winds up making a lot of sense with its limited tape release through Tartarus Records, a black-ink-on-grey-box unfolding with a handmade feel to match the Groningen group’s intricate heavy/ambient tradeoffs throughout the song’s 18 minutes. The program repeats on both sides of the tape, which has crows and branches printed on it, and for what’s purported to be a demo track, the sound is awfully full and the band is awfully tight, leaving me to wonder what they might look to change going into the album — that is, how much more there is to build on from what they have here. It’s almost unfair to use the word “cassingle” for a song that’s en EP unto itself, but technically I suppose that’s what Crows is.

And taken on the level of a single, it’s a strikingly cohesive one, with guitarists Alex Loots and Richard Postma trading between thick waves of riffing and sparse atmospherics, ambient squigglies floating into the sonic space of a mix that, again, is done little justice by being designated as a demo. Bassist Frank de Boer distinguishes himself in the song’s midsection with a surprisingly warm tone, while drummer Sven Jurgens manages to keep the proceedings fluid for the most part without falling into the trap of the Isis drumbeat (you know the one!), which is one of the core challenges at this point of post-metal percussion styles — how to make it not sound like Panopticon. Postma handles vocals as well when they arise, his assured growl topping the later payoff of a fervent instrumental build playing out in a rising tide of start-stop chugging; a measured, restrained groove finally letting loose just in time for the growls to reemerge. For those familiar with the style, Ortega‘s take won’t be wholly strange, but Crows remains a solid execution of the progressive aspects of post-metal and even over its extended course doesn’t dull the attention more than it intends to do with hypnotic repetition of parts.

It’s easy to imagine “Crows” paired with another piece of similar length as opposing vinyl sides as Ortega‘s next long-player, but I guess we have some time yet before we get there. Fair enough. Maybe by then I’ll have it figured out what exactly makes Crows a demo.

Ortega, “Crows” from Crows (2014)

Ortega on Thee Facebooks

Ortega on Bandcamp

After completely selling through their run of vinyl and tapes for their 2013 single-song EP outing, The Serpent Stirs (review here), Netherlands-based post-doom crushers Ortega have announced work in progress on a sophomore full-length that will serve as the follow-up to 2010’s 1634 — though with The Serpent Stirs and 2012’s A Flame Never Rises on its Own between, you could hardly call the four-piece inactive — set to release later this year. The new 18-minute demo track, “Crows,” is the first audio to surface related to the album.

Tartarus Records will handle the cassette release of the new record, while Black Bow Records takes on the vinyl. “Crows” will also be issued as a limited cassingle in time for the band’s appearance at Roadburn next weekend.

In the meantime, “Crows” can be streamed below. The PR wire has it like this:

ORTEGA – “Crows” demo streaming now.

A murder of crows, a blackened swarm of liberation, if not from death. This immortality you speak of, three-horned one, gauges out the spirit’s eye. I have been wandering the astral plains and found nothing but stalemates of shapes and impressions. The evolution which I have been taught from the stumbling age onward brought me nothing but fear. It is time to start looking inward. Stare down and rise.

The murky depths of Ortega’s sound drag a darker yet more poignant carcass ashore with Crows, their latest recording. A collision of doom, sludge and noise tells a story of man looking inward and onward.

Crows will be released as a very limited cassette by Tartarus Records on April 10th, coinciding with our show at Roadburn in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Crows is a part of our yet unnamed album, to be released later this year by Black Bow Records on vinyl and Tartarus Records on cassette.

Thank you.

https://www.facebook.com/ortegadoom/
http://ortegaband.bandcamp.com/merch
https://twitter.com/ortega_band
http://tartarusrecords.com/
http://www.blackbowrecords.com/

Ortega, “Crows” Demo

I guess on a basic stylistic level, Dutch post-metallers Ortega aren’t really hitting on anything groundbreaking, but aside from its title being the best euphemism I’ve heard yet this week for getting a boner, I chose to feature their 18-minute single-song EP, The Serpent Stirs, for the basic reason that it was just what I needed today, just when I needed it. This afternoon, in a swirl of office chaos and lacking indoor voices, I plugged in my headphones and it was like I had just boarded a plane. Off I went.

The Groningen outfit delve pretty deeply into Panopticon-era Isisisms, but are tonally thicker and their requisite ambient break in “The Serpent Stirs” — the sole track for which the EP is named — features a surprisingly effective bluesy solo and some righteously grooving bass work. Again, it ain’t saving the world, but the build in The Serpent Stirs was enough to remind me of what was so appealing about this kind of stuff when it first started appearing, and enough to make me want to check out Ortega‘s other releases, the 2012 A Flame Never Rises on its Own EP and 2010’s 1634 debut full-length.

And when it comes to The Obelisk Radio, a big part of the reason I got it going in the first place was for just those moments, when you feel like your brain is going to fucking collapse and you need to punch out immediately and head somewhere else, mentally if not physically, so as The Serpent Stirs filled that role for me today, it seems only appropriate to make it the Add of the Week.

The band is Richard Postma (vocals, guitar), Alex Loots (guitar), Frank de Boer (bass) and Sven Jurgens (drums), and they’ve got vinyl and CDs and such for sale on the Ortega Bandcamp, from whence the following player also comes: