To be honest, I tend to be wary of bands that lay claim to any sort of thrash renaissance; but the story of Norwegian band Ormskrik is not a straightforward one. For a start, the band formed whilst still teens and, from a self-built rehearsal studio, began to hone their primitive rumblings into something more incisive. Drawing, inevitably, from genre leaders Slayer, Metallica and Anthrax, Ormskrik added a touch of blackened grind and, in so doing, caught the ear of respected producer Daniel Bergstrand. The resultant album was snapped up by Norwegian underground label Fysisk Format (Arabrot), who know a thing or two about great bands and, thanks to some suitably enigmatic cover art, the album caught our attention.
Opening with Occultness, a venomous slab of thrash, stripped down to its essence, Ormskrik immediately make their presence felt. For sure, familiar elements are there, but it’s clothed in grim, blackened armour that gives the track a particular virulence that is hard to ignore. Nor do the band let such momentum go to waste. The gnarled groove of Destroyer Of Worlds steps neatly between chrome-plated groove and hyper-speed riffing, the vocals caught somewhere between Tom Warrior and Tom Araya. With its churning bass and typically powerful production it’s a strong song, given even greater weight by a brief dalliance with progressive elements before exploding into bloody life for the finale. A short introduction, Oblation is pure black metal theatrics, paving the way for March Of The Dead, an explosive jolt of crushing thrash that sounds like Exodus accidently played at 45rpm, before coalescing into an almighty groove that will bang every head in the venue when the band step out on stage once more. A brief digression sees the magisterial intro to Descend To Madness wrongfoot the listener as the band unleash a torrent of icy, blackened riffs that seem to assault the listener physically.
Maintaining the album’s momentum, Deathwind is a fairly straight forward battering, but it leads us neatly to the acoustic beauty of Vegan Til, an elegiac segue that is swept away in the torrential rage of Hellheim, another frantic black metal piece that sees guitars and drums clashing in a mighty feat of arms that proffers no clear victor. An album highlight, it’s impossible not to get swept up in the grandeur of the song’s epic conclusion. Rather more typically thrash in execution, The Morbid Arrives clatters along, although a mid-track bait and switch sees Ormskrik slow the pace and pull the listener straight down to hell. Hecatomb has a riff straight out of the Anthrax book of scything grooves, but it’s seven-minute album closer Eye For An Eye that most clearly points the way forward for this ambitious band. Written with a sense of the ebb and flow of a mighty battle, with towering, majestic riffs and a beautiful acoustic coda, it’s worth the price of admission alone and leaves the listener curious as to how the band will evolve on their next LP.
Ormskrik’s debut album has much to recommend it. The band’s performance is tight, the production typically excellent, and there’s a sense throughout that the band have a deep-rooted love for the music they play. At times, it can feel a touch derivative and songs such as Deathwind add little to the overall mix, but when the band allow their ambitions to run riot, as they do on Hellheim and impressive album closer Eye For An Eye, it’s clear that Ormskrik have much to offer. One hell of an impressive debut and a promise of even greater things to come. 8
