PALLBEARER at The Woodward Theater

Progressive death metal from New England. From the start, Ordh, the “corrupted spelling” of an old English word meaning “the tip of a spear”, have bucked trends to do things differently. Unlike the majority of today’s new bands, where the desire to put themselves, underdeveloped music and overdeveloped merch drops into the public eye as quickly as possible, Ordh took the opposite path, choosing to ruminate, simmer, write and rewrite the material that comprises Blind in Abyssal Realms over the course of five years. The result is as stunning and devastating as it is massive and hulking. “Apis Bull” roars out of the gate like a spacious colossus of sonic desecration, swimming with truncheon-swinging cavernous melodics and cacophonous harmonies. “Moon of Urd” is the deftly organized result of competing sewer-dwelling neighbors blasting their collections of ‘70s prog and spidery death metal at each other through uninsulated rice paper walls. The title track rides shotgun with the beasts of cryptozoological burden as they mimic the sound of their tearing down new buildings and three-step dancing on the remnants. “We’re all pretty psyched about this as a snapshot of where we are now,” says Brooks. "The editing process was pretty ruthless and nothing was sacred and unless a part could prove itself, it was fair game to be cut.” The recording process was just as labored over and extensive. Blake’s drums were originally captured in the summer of 2023. At the time, the band figured, given their protracted writing process and meticulous preparation, that the rest of the recording would quickly follow and be hastily completed. Artist Paolo Girardi (Cryptopsy, Revocation, The Black Dahlia Murder) was approached about knocking out an image to coincide with what was thought to be an impending release. A conversation with Girardi had the artist offering up an illustrative depiction of his own personal fantasy world for the cover, to which the band wisely agreed. As the recording process lumbered on, in a reversal of procedural fortune, the band began using Girardi’s cover painting as inspiration. “The album cover is sick!” enthuses Brooks. “Paolo is the man! In terms of us telling him what we wanted, we said ‘something vaguely cave-ish,’ and that was it. He’s the master, leave the creative process to the master. He knocked out the painting so quickly that we only had drums done. But a lot of parts changed and we didn’t have all the lyrics done, so it was pretty cool to have this thing that was going to be the visual representation as inspiration. There were a lot of times we’d look at the cover and try to emulate it sonically.” Five years on from inception and with a deal worked out with Singapore’s Pulverised Records, Ordh are finally emerging from their lengthy creative hibernation. Blind in Abyssal Realms is set to burrow its way into the earholes and consciousness of the extreme music underground with the band finally ready to bring itself to the live arena with a spate of local shows followed by concentric circle touring as their profile grows and demand increases. “The goal with this band is more about creating something that sits well with us in the long run,” reasons Brooks. “A band that has caught up to our tastes and having something where we can do those epic song structures as opposed to when we were in Barishi and the goals were like to play this or that venue, open for this or that band or sign to this or that label. The goals you have when you’re 16 years old. I’d be lying if I said I getting Ordh to a wider audience and having people enjoy it wasn’t part of the equation, but it’s mostly about maturing artistically and being the band we’ve always wanted to be.”