ORIGOD – Impression

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7.0

• Bands:
  ORIGOD
• Duration: 00:35:15
• Available from: 05/31/2024
• Label:

• Argonauta Records

Streaming not yet available

Origod's decision to indicate that of Cave In as a protected name is curious, a band that, partly out of obstinacy (the return to Hydrahead after the publication of an album with very high radio potential like “Antenna”) and partly out of objective bad luck (the tragic death of Caleb Scofield in 2018) has always stopped at the threshold of a success that it would have fully deserved.
An unusual choice, it was said, but coherent, given that in the best of cases the songs of the Piedmontese quintet evoke the same vertigo, the same sensation of free fall that is perceived in the writing of Stephen Brodsky and his companions.
Born in 2007, Origod have gradually gained visibility thanks to intense live activity and the flattering reviews obtained by their second album “Solitude In Time And Space”, published by Argonauta Records, which now renews its commitment to this new work as well.
“Impression” is announced by the two singles “When They Lock The Door” and “Icarus”: the first sounds like a more muscular version of Quicksand, while the second is illuminated by a melodic track that pays homage to “In/Casino/Out” , and from At The Drive-In the quintet should learn to make better use of their intuitions, avoiding reasoning exclusively on the sense of urgency of a piece; with a more thoughtful arrangement, “Icarus” could in fact have been the keystone of an album that certainly fascinates (due to the potential that the band lets shine through), but at the same time annoys for some hasty choices and imperfections, managing to fully convince only in its central part.
In the heart of the work, in fact, you can find the best songs: the title track takes the listener back to the crossover years, with the aggressive pace of the first Mastodon in the verse which responds to the melodic vein of the Smashing Pumpkins in the chorus; “Sometimes”, which is close, in terms of rhythms and writing, to the aforementioned best Cave In ever (despite an interlocutory introduction) and “Lapis Niger”, a rattling melodic post-hardcore number where the guitars of Rubens Caligiuri and Dario Chiadini they abandon themselves to an incessant battle.
On the contrary, breathing becomes short at the end, because the broken rhythms of “Wounds” seem to want to bring it closer to Aaron Turner's Sumac, but the transformation remains incomplete, given that “Perception Review” also does not properly exploit the melodic riff at the opening and arrives feebly at its finale, while “Blessed of Cursed” tries to repeat the exploit of “Sometimes”, but only partially succeeds.
We will never know if this was the result that Origod were looking for, yet, like the albums of their 'mentors' Cave In (from “Perfect Pitch Black” onwards, at least), “Impression” is an album that takes time to understand. can endear you, and is not always able to fully convince; nevertheless, it deserves more than one chance, precisely for that handful of songs (“Icarus”, “Sometimes” and above all “Lapis Niger”) that allow us to imagine, hope and glimpse a promising future for the band.