Review & Track Premiere: Oreyeon & Lord Elephant, Doom Sessions Vol. 8
Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on March 23rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
On May 5, Italy’s Oreyeon and Lord Elephant will stand together for the latest installment of Heavy Psych Sounds‘ apparently-ongoing split series, Doom Sessions Vol. 8. The two outfits, from La Spezia and Florence, respectively, each contribute an original and a cover to the 32-minute long-player, arranging them such that Oreyeon‘s take on Slo Burn‘s “Wheel Fall” (premiering below) leads into the 10-minute “C10H12N2O” — the chemical formula for serotonin — on side A and Lord Elephant flip the procession, with their own 10-minute jam-piece “Twilight Reflexes” giving over to a take on Link Wray‘s 1958 instrumental single “Rumble,” which is one of those early-ish rock songs that, even if you don’t know where you know it from and can’t identify it by name, might have been taken in through general osmosis/residing on the same planet where it has proliferated for the last 65 years.
Either way, recognizable, and if Lord Elephant‘s stretching the two-minute Link Wray and the Wraymen original to just over eight minutes is an issue, well, you might as well stop reading now, because heavy jams are the order of the day on Doom Sessions Vol. 8, and while the series has in the past has featured the likes of Conan, -(16)-, Tons, Bongzilla, Grime, Deadsmoke andother meaner-hitting bands, there is precedent for a bit of stylistic ranging as well, whether that’s Hippie Death Cult, High Reeper, Acid Mammoth and 1782 or Cosmic Reaper, 
so in addition to both being signed to Heavy Psych Sounds, neither Oreyeon nor Lord Elephant are out of place sound-wise.
If anything, both acts benefit from the concise showcase the split provides. For Oreyeon, it follows their mid-2022 LP, Equations for the Useless (review here); their third album overall and second since changing their name from the more-traditionally-spelled-but-easier-to-confuse-with-a-ton-of-other-bands Orion. They bite into “Wheel Fall” with marked gusto, mashing up the original Slo Burn demo that appeared on various versions of 1997’s Amusing the Amazing with the mellower break and solo from the same album’s “Muezli” before building back into the final chorus, benefitting from the double-guitar density of Andrea Ricci and Matteo Signanini and the outright essential shove of Pietro Virgilio‘s drumming as bassist Richard Silvaggio gracefully makes the vocals his own rather than attempting an impression of John Garcia, who fronted the initially-shortlived Slo Burn after his time in Kyuss.
It’s an in-genre dogwhistle, ‘a classic if you know it,’ and Oreyeon‘s steps to bring it into the context of their style pay off both within “Wheel Fall” itself and in the transition to “C10H12N2O,” which begins its procession with drifting guitar over a quieter low-end foundation, drums smoothly entering with a purpose not to shove but provide some grounding for what might otherwise simply float away, instrumentally-speaking. There’s a heavier drive that starts just past the 90-second mark, and it may be from this that the piece derives its title, since surely the brain is releasing some form or other of mood-altering chemical as the swaying movement plays out with sweet basslines coursing underneath. Whether it’s shiver-down-spine or hairs-standing-up, it’s affecting. They ride that part for a time, move into more of a solo in the middle, then drop the drums and go back not to the start but to standalone guitar, then bass, then keys/effects, before bursting back to life with a larger roll that serves as the apex, guitar and bass gradually fading as Virgilio holds on longer drumming, finally falling out just as “C10H12N2O” enters its 10th minute.
That especially-hypnotic finish gives Lord Elephant a suitable 
beginning point for the jazzy manner in which “Twilight Reflexes” unfurls itself, Edoardo de Nardi‘s bass doing repetitive runs while Tommaso Urzino‘s drums solidify and Leandro Gaccione makes ready to reveal the Earthless-style soloing set to top the next couple minutes, departing at around 4:10 while the bass holds and the drums dig deeper into their shuffle, only to return again with airier heavy-prog tonality as they build back up, arriving somewhat predictably but satisfyingly at another solo stretch. It’s not as long sustained — just enough to get the point across — before Lord Elephant blues-comedown to another pause, the bass introducing a start-stop progression at 6:25 that is the thread running along the consumingly heavy apex to come, growing slower as “Twilight Reflexes” enters its final minute, less gradual than were Oreyeon in their extended track’s ending, but with a cymbal wash and amp buzz that gives an organic band-in-room feel.
With its telltale guitar strums, “Rumble” hints toward surf but never goes full-Dick Dale, and feels like fair enough territory for Lord Elephant‘s fuzzy interpretation. They grow noisier as they move forward, cycling into a solo that moves around and between the underlying rhythm, meeting it here and departing again before disappearing as they pass the halfway point only to return with echoing-heavy-jam intent for a more languid solo. At 5:30, when they shift back to the song’s central proto-riff, the snare begs for complementary handclaps, and while they don’t come, the subsequent takeoff gives a more weighted impact to signal the ending soon to be take place. As they have since the outset of “Twilight Reflexes,” the three-piece flow easily into and through that heavy capstone part, mirroring the longer cut in a natural ending as well without actually repeating themselves.
Lord Elephant are the newer band here, with their 2021 debut album, Cosmic Awakening (review here) snagged for release last year by Heavy Psych Sounds, but both acts have plenty to offer in terms of the instrumental chemistry on which their material, original or otherwise, largely depends. Doom Sessions Vol. 8 is a bit of a flex on the part of the label showing off two of its up-and-coming outfits, but frankly, that’s what a release like this is for, and while this won’t go down in history as the most doomed of the Doom Sessions, it’s a chance for Oreyeon and Lord Elephant to shine, and neither of them lets the opportunity slip.
As noted, Oreyeon‘s “Wheel Fall” premieres below. More info follows from the PR wire, including the all-important preorder links in case you’d like to get the jump on the May 5 release date.
Please enjoy:
Oreyeon, “Wheel Fall” (Slo Burn cover) track premiere
WHEEL FALL is the second single taken from the upcoming DOOM SESSIONS VOL. VIII. The single is an OREYEON track.
The release will see the light May 5th via Heavy Psych Sounds.
SAYS THE BAND:
“Wheel Fall is an obscure track from the coolest Kyuss related project ever, Slo Burn. This is our tribute to this short-lived band, we also included in this song, the solo section of Muezli from their amazing debut EP… enjoy it !”
GRAB YOUR COPY HERE:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS265
USA SHOP:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm
Oreyeon:
Richard Silvaggio BASS / VOCALS
Andrea Ricci GUITAR
Matteo Signanini GUITAR
Pietro Virgilio DRUMS
Lord Elephant:
Leandro Gaccione GUITAR
Edoardo De Nardi BASS
Tommaso Urzino DRUMS
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