OREYEON – The Grotesque Within

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7.0

• Bands:
  OREYEON
• Duration: 00:36:16
• Available from: 02/13/2026
• Label:

• Heavy Psych Sounds

Streaming not yet available

Stoner/doom is one of those trends that enjoys better health in Italy, consistently proposing new music, new groups, small variations to a style that is partly codified, partly sufficiently elastic and prone to contamination. In the case of Oreyeon we are not talking about newcomers at all, but about a group that has already made its way into the scene and already boasts a substantial discography. Curiously, their fourth album “The Grotesque Within” arrives closely, just a few weeks later, than that of Lord Elephant, a brilliant instrumental group with which they shared the split “Doom Sessions Vol. 8” in 2023.

“The Grotesque Within” is based, lyrically and in the imagery it intends to evoke, on the stories of the American writer Thomas Ligotti and his bizarre, unusual, delirious visions. An evocative setting, for a work that on the contrary has no experimental daring, does not fall into the category of those who get lost in the cosmos or in abstractionism. The band from La Spezia operates a successful synthesis of sounds between the '60s and '70s, on one front, and a relatively more recent interpretation, consisting of substantial injections of grunge and modern hard rock. A discussion therefore between classicism, retro interpretations, and the desire to be current, with feet firmly planted in the present.
The result is a fascinating collection of songs, reminiscent of a psychedelic version of Soundgarden, where from the first listens the desire to be immediate, captivating in its own way emerges, without hiding behind noise, oppressive distortions or exhausting slowness. It is therefore a record with a 'rock' edge in the best sense of the term: there is a good balance of the different souls of the stoner, where the more vintage and similar legacies to seventies doom serve to give fullness and a dark patina to the whole, without sacrificing anything in terms of dynamism and smoothness of the melodies.

“Echoes Of Old Nightmare” at the beginning immediately sets the coordinates of the work, alternating captivating verses and relaxations, oily rhythmic guitars and restless sensations, maintaining the 'single' tones, a simplicity of views that is not at all superficiality or simplism. In Oreyeon psychedelia is a veil, it rests on the compositions without dominating them, while it is the hard rock tone that gives vigor and consistency. The language is frank and direct, with attention to detail – the solos, for example, are pleasant and coherent overall – only perhaps not very courageous in not going beyond the starting references. Not that the album is stingy with ideas, because as can be heard in the two parts of “Nothing But Impurites” the Ligurian musicians willingly move from a more urgent phrasing – the first part – to a dimension of dazed nightmare – “Nothing But Impurites – Part 2” – slowing down the action and leading to moments of suffocating heaviness, close to realities much more extreme than theirs.

In extending the running time, more subtle and exquisitely sinister atmospheres are perceived, in coherence with the themes of the lyrics, as relatively more relaxed nuances, even if subtly deviated. The title track then evokes the ghost of Alice In Chains, inserting some digressions bordering on folk in the second half. While “Dead Puppet Eyes” mediates between a disturbing start and an enveloping sequel, between the less oppressive Electric Wizard and the aforementioned Alice In Chains.
Overall, therefore, the album flows well, without sagging, although the feeling remains that there are the foundations to go further and let one's personality emerge more. Because the art of writing excellent songs is there and there is probably a way to be even more distinctive and characteristic.