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Orbeth - The Way
6 February 2012
01. Ebb And Flow
02. Home
03. Lost Yet Connected
04. The Whisper In The Wind
05. Orbethian Queen
06. Time Hole Closing
07. Fire Dream
08. Path To Abaddon
09. Meus Universum............Meus
Orbeth is the baby of Ben "Bijimitsu" White, formerly of Mithras. He plays all instruments and writes the music for this spacey, atmospheric progressive metal band. With a tag like that, are you as excited as I am?
The first track seems like a nice, cool intro with some spooky, spoken male vocals. I don't love spoken vocals but whatever, I'm ready for this to unleash! The second track gets going, no unleashing, and MORE SPOKEN WORD. Oh, dear. Is the whole album going to be like this?
Yes, it is, but a few songs later I get over it and begin to understand their groove. If you have reservations about spoken word then relax, you'll get over it, too. The vocals flow between spoken and darkly whispered, never rising above a mezzo forte despite the music sometimes charging ahead into a whole range of dynamics. This saves it, and after a while the vocals start to make more sense as a vital element of this specific atmosphere which is mystic, cloudy, and menacing.
Maybe because so many bands use spoken passages as intros preceding something explosive, I kept expecting Orbeth to break loose into something bigger during the first few songs. In the beginning the music seems to be hinting towards some fiery climaxes that never fully materialize. But stick with it, and you'll see how it all fits in the bigger picture.
Sometimes the mood of a song felt stunted, held back (musically and vocally), and other times the pensiveness works in its favor, like in "Path To Abaddon" where the vocals are forcibly whispering about hell while the guitar is madly soloing above. Delightfully unsettling.
The production is very hazy but there is no doubt that the music is great stuff. The drumming can get downright maniacal, and the guitar solos are darkly dreamy and epic. It doesn't always build when I want it to, but I seem to enjoy it more and more with each listen. The jury's still out for me; now you go listen and see what happens.
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Written on 13.02.2012 by
Susan
Metal Storm Senior Editor, reviewer, and musician; Susan appreciates quality metal regardless of genre. Metal Storm Staff since 2006.
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Well I initially clicked on this because of the horrendous cover art but then I spotted the word Mithras and that intrigued me. I've always liked Mithras' spacey, atmospheric sections and going by the one song I've heard (Lost Yet Connected) it sounds interesting. Probably not the sort of thing I'd usually go for mind. The spoken words are kinda rubbish really. Would have probably been better to leave it instrumental or something as the music is quite nice.
But I agree, the whispered vocals constantly sound like a build-up that never realises itself. (afer listening to a couple of tracks now) |
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Spacey, atmospheric progressive metal band? The drumming can get downright maniacal, and the guitar solos are darkly dreamy and epic? My, I'm excited to hear this.
About the build-up that never realizes itself... my whole life is like that so I don't think I'll have a problem with it  |
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Listened to lost yet connected. awesome.
thanks for reviewing this. The mentioning of Mithras caught my eye haha |
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| Very good description of the album, made me want to listen to it! |
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 Susan - 13.02.2012 at 16:36
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Written by !J.O.O.E.! on 13.02.2012 at 15:04
\Would have probably been better to leave it instrumental or something as the music is quite nice.
But I agree, the whispered vocals constantly sound like a build-up that never realises itself.
About the build-ups - YES! It was very frustrating at first, and for a while actually. Once I stopped expecting the explosion and satisfaction then I started enjoying the music more, taking it for what it is and not what I wanted it to be. But still, I really wanted it to be shaped differently.
And I thought about saying it'd be better as an instrumental but I'm not sure. At least the vocals wouldn't be hinting at non-existent build-ups, but the production is so hazy I feel like the lack of vocals may have left a hole. Who knows... this is a tricky one. |
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| Way to use the same font as Cynic! Geez. |
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| The cover made me think of the Terminator between 2 time travels ( I know he's supposed to be naked, but it's the impression I got). As for the music. I'm still uncertain. It's really good background music for reading, but It's not something I would dedicate a full listen to. |
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The cover, the song titles and your review reminded me of the article about Progressive Rock on cracked.com 
I'll chech this out |
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| Listened on youtube. Kinda wish this was a instrumental band like Mastery |
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| This is definitely not my kind of music but i do like the review very much! |
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Written by Cryzpin on 13.02.2012 at 21:46
This is definitely not my kind of music but i do like the review very much!
^This. |
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Susan - 13.02.2012 at 23:25
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Written by Susan on 13.02.2012 at 23:25
Aww, thanks guys.
See? You should totally review occasionally, the extreme metal boys are going wild in our review section I'll try to do some flooding of my own though  |
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| Came here because of the "so awful it's funny" artwork, the Mithras comment and the review... Good review but the music is just meh at best. |
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Susan - 14.02.2012 at 01:16
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Written by Milena on 13.02.2012 at 23:45
Written by Susan on 13.02.2012 at 23:25
Aww, thanks guys.
See? You should totally review occasionally, the extreme metal boys are going wild in our review section I'll try to do some flooding of my own though
Silly girl, I DO review occassionally  |
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I liked the instrumental, but the spoken word isnt for me 
ps: also caught by the Mithras mention |
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Written by Susan on 14.02.2012 at 01:16
Silly girl, I DO review occassionally
But MORE. When you're not tired of making sense in other people's sentences ofc. |
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| I smell a concept album, should be interesting. Wonder what an 'Orbeth' is (band name and the track 'Orbethian Queen' make it sound like a theme). Nice review btw |
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Written by !J.O.O.E.! on 13.02.2012 at 15:04
Well I initially clicked on this because of the horrendous cover art...
Good to see I'm not the only one.
Though progressive + a lot of spoken word bits? Yeah, doesn't sound like this would be for me. |
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