Oruga – S/T ...

Remember when I said there should be a term, “sludgedoom” or “doomsludge” with no slash or dash needed? Well, we’re back to that with this, because it’s the best way to describe this French monolith and underground hit, Oruga. Oh, and one thing before I go: this review is long, long overdue, I know. I’m such a scatterbrain sometimes, and more often than not, late in the game, too. Anyway.

French bands, to me, always had this weird edge; maybe it’s my long-standing association with French cinema, but I always pause when I see that a band is from France. No offense to the country or it’s people, it’s just that I’ve come to expect something completely off-kilter. Then came Oruga, the underground hit everybody seemed to be in on, so I decided, why not, I’ll give them a go. They basically play down-tuned, nasty, suffocating, snail-paced, sludge-laced doom-influenced, drone-flavored metal. That’s basically what they do. So we have guitars tuned all the way down to hell and almost droning in their tone and usage, grumbling bass, minimal drumming, and vocals that can only be described as enfeebled shouts – the guy seriously sounds like he’s gasping for air half the time. Add to that the occasional solo-like (that are never actually solos in the conventional sense) guitar sweeps, and you have the Oruga style down.




The ride starts with “Northern Promises” that displays Oruga’s talent. The main riff falls, drags and rises and is a very technical one played at low tempo, accompanied by punctuating drums and steady bass. It alternates between this riff and a more flowing, let-it-ride passage/hook that grooves and crawls, right before hitting an upward hill of a more steady, if a little slower groove. They polish it off with a nice solo and bring it to a close and you wonder just what the hell that steamroller driver was drinking. Then comes “Kissing the Void” and there, Oruga starts churning the riffs, spiraling them around the vocals at first, with a beginning solo to boot, before settling into more grooving, angular main riff that they punctuate with riding passages. Similar to the first track, the band plays along and settles into that comfortable pace until they hit a steep sludge hill, where slabs slow down even more and embellish it first with a solo, and then with guitar feedback and off-kilter bass.

Then comes “My 9/11” and it plays out just like you expect from a song referencing the day when everything changed – it’s a suffocating, harsh track that follows dense, angular riffing to a doomsludgier (told you, I’m hoping to coin a term) hook, and to switch it up, they give it to you raw at first and embellish it with sharp licks of guitar the second time around. The song is the first time, also, when Oruga decide to slow down just a tad, for about a minute, and give you spoken-word vocalizations before hitting an ascending bridge and adding technical drumming into the mix returning to where it started. It’s a song that goes places, that much is certain. Switching it up to create a bit of a brighter (read “gray skies in the morning and no rain”) mood, as if sensing we need some sort of reprieve, the band moves closer to a rock moment in “Like a Stone in the Water” and draw closer to more atmospheric, moody stoner pieces in their delivery. The track crawls, following the Oruga pattern, until a certain point, using angular grooves as its ground-slime for barely-faster-than-a-snail pace in inducing filthy, swampy doom, but then suddenly hits a rock hill and starts bringing it. Therein they decide to experiment and create melody out of what is otherwise feedback and guitar noise, which yields an interesting, smile-worthy result and finish it off with more of their beastly slabs and sweeps of guitar.

The EP comes to a close with “Crimson Dawn” where the band approaches something akin to melancholy. I swear it, it’s the strangest mood buried between the droning slabs and melodic licks of guitar. The band has its heavy metal-like moment with vocal harmonies (yes, pleasant vocal harmonies on this misery-inducer.) It shows off good range far as the band’s concerned, but keeps the slow-paced, choking misery air of the rest of the album, along with the technically-sound riffs and sludgy, droning tones.

While I found Oruga’s offering enjoyable, there are some things I decidedly did not like. The sound was too dense, too dark and too suffocating that it’s a mood-killer – perfect if you want your mood hacked to pieces and bloody on the ground, but for me, it can’t be listened at all times (or in very long intervals, three tracks max) and it is a minus. Further, I find the sound a little too undefined – not in a lo-fi way, mind, just… let me put it this way, alright, when I say “doomsludge” I mean sludge metal’s unpleasantness and desire to challenge the listener expressed in slabs and doom grooves – it’s a combination that is too hit-and-miss at times and the sludge influence takes away from the refinement of the doom. But otherwise, if choking, impending-doom/buried-alive type atmosphere and droning riffs are your thing, I doubt you’ll be unsatisfied. 7/10.

Words: Sarp Esin.

Oruga @ Myspace