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O.R.k.

Ramagehead

Review by Gary Hill

This is a unique and quite intriguing album. It's likely to make my best of 2019 list. This is dark and heavy most of the time. It's not progressive rock in a traditional sense, but it is in the modern prog zone. The lead singer is Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari. King Crimson's Pat Mastelotto handles the drums. Colin Edwin of Porcupine Tree plays the bass. Carmelo Pipitone handles the guitar. Additionally, Serj Tankian of System of a Down shows up on one of the songs.

This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) in Music Street Journal: 2019  Volume 2. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2019.

Track by Track Review
Kneel To Nothing
An odd, but cool, vocal section opens this. The cut works out from there to a hard-edged jam that has a lot of psychedelia along with metal and more in the mix. It reminds me to some degree of King's X. There is a dark, almost unsettling thing here. It also has some seriously metallic moments. At times I'm reminded a bit of Tool. This thing gets decidedly heavy later in the number, too.
Signals Erased

This also comes in a bit odd, but it has a psychedelia meets space rock sound. The cut turns out to some seriously pounding, metallic territory. This is so potent and fierce. There are mellower movements on this track that make me think of what you might get if you combined 90s-era King Crimson with Pearl Jam. This thing moves through all kinds of changes along the road, though. It is a really screaming hot number.

Beyond Sight
Intricate acoustic guitar sounds begin this. The cut works out from there in style, but remains balladic. Even when it powers up as it approaches the one minute mark, this isn't metallic or hard rocking, but rather just intense in terms of psychedelic based prog stylings. This gets harder rocking further down the road.
Black Blooms (feat. Serj Tankian)
Atmospheric and textural at the start, the first vocals come in over the top of that musical concept. The track works forward from there. The number is among the mellowest here, but does build upward later. It has some particularly intense tones and textures to it. It is really packed with emotion.
Time Corroded
While the bulk of this tune isn't a big change, they drive it out into some intense weirdness later in the number. This has some particularly powerhouse vocal performances, too. It's dark, dramatic and potent.
Down The Road
Intricate acoustic guitar brings this into being. While this has a lot of emotional and melodic intensity in these mellower portions, it doesn't get more powered up intensity until around the halfway mark.
Some Other Rainbow Part 1
Coming in rather mellow and quite odd, this is one of the most unique pieces here. The piano drives a lot of it. There is a rather operatic vibe to the piece. It's a short one at only about a minute-and-a-half.
Strangled Words
A bit less than the first minute of this is set in a melodic rock sound that's on the mellower end of the spectrum. After that the hard-edged textures join, and this thing really screams out like crazy. This quite dramatic and dynamic.       
Some Other Rainbow Part 2
Returning to the themes of "Part 1," this is symphonic in some ways. It has a dark and dramatic rock vibe at the same time. It drops way down for a time and then works back up from there. Around the half-way mark this works to a killer prog jam that is delightfully complex. Yet, it still manages to groove.
 
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