Oruga

Oruga’s sludged out sound is deep, dirty and disgusting and the French quintet move through massive pits of despair to crawl through the filth and head towards the inevitable end of debut full length Blackened Souls. Their sound has slowly been evolving since the release of a well-received demo in 2010 and with orthodox or post-black metal being more the type of music found to come from France, Oruga stand far apart from their countrymen in their expressions of anguish. Vocalist C twists his voice around slow, mournful progressions that switch from laid back guitars to ramped up, fast-paced inflections during the monolithic torture of “Dead Among The Living” before “Disciples” takes things right back to doomed territory and the promise that “…death is everything.”

Oruga aren’t giving us anything new here in terms of sound and style but their execution is tight and their passion drips with intent from their words. “Cursed” hides a deadly groove that slowly gives way to gorgeous and atmospheric movements that turn the song into something much more interesting and show that Oruga are able to push past any constraints the genre might have and instead work new paths of magic into the sound of Blackened Souls.

7.0 / 10 — Cheryl