Review of Ellorsith’s "Orbhais" with full album stream
— 9/10

"Orbhais" is a stunning piece of black/death, sounding closer to Angelcorpse, Mitochondrion and the advent of revisionist bands like Dead Congregation, generally speaking, it's old school death metal viewed through the atonality of bands like Deathspell Omega and Arkhon Infaustus. This EP's woefully short 21min run-time only services to tease what wonders will be in store when these guys get round to putting out a full-length.

The mark of NoEvDia bands (and their friends) runs deep through this album, with the use of samples and rich atmosphere that breathes a ritualistic feeling into the brutal attack. Considering their discography is so light the focus that they have been able to bring to their songs is impressive, it displays a keen understanding of taste, restraint, and self-editing to realize such a solid set of songs, EP's are notorious for being the dumping ground for a band's B-sides, rough cuts and 'almost was' tracks, there is none of that here.

Riffs switch between typical death metal brutality and more swirling dissonant lines, interspersed with the odd traditional sounding black metal passages; the vocals are deep, brooding and drenched in reverb serving as an additional punishment to an already intense affair. The performance on the drums is solid, I can't say that it particularly gripped me in the way that some others do and the bass does its job rumbling along in the background — overall it's a guitar-driven album, with a keen sense of variation in its tempos, the onslaughts cease into more melodic or sparse passages only to have the intensity turned up again to pummel you into pieces.

Recommended listening for anyone that's a fan of Death infused with Black elements, it kept me from mourning the fact that I haven't had a Teitanblood or Dead Congregation in too long.

Reviewed by Dan