Italian stoner rockers Oreyeon release their third album Equations For The Useless (Heavy Psych Sounds), a potent mix of stoner, grunge, heavy rock, and lengthier progressive compositions. This album notably draws on the influences of years gone by not only in style but was also recorded live, an approach to a recording I’m very much a fan of.
Right from the get-go with ‘It was Time’ this starts off big, heavy as anything, and the low-end sound is very pleasing. Huge bass tones loaded riffs lurching into the soundscape, a grungy nineties alt vocal style is a potent combination. Oof!
This is immediately capitalised by 2nd track ‘Pazuzu’ at 4:11 the shortest track on the album. The early Alice In Chains / Layne Staley vocal feel is brought to the fore in the mix, and this is coupled with up-tempo, yet darker tones, both heavy and menacing, this is great stuff.
Unfortunately, in what is probably the only misstep on an otherwise great album, they decide that the near ten-minute title track should capitalise on the built momentum with several minutes of a simple low meandering bassline and general assorted ethereal tones. This was quite a let-down after getting off to such an excellent start. One and a half minutes in and I was wondering what happened, such contrast. Fortunately, the drums do kick in near the three-minute mark, but by then it’s been too long and it’s trying to regain the momentum it had so effortlessly achieved only minutes before. Honestly, it’s not a bad track, but its placement just makes it feel like filler. I’d recommend listening to have this as track number 1 instead and run it slightly out of order.
Following on from this the album returns to form with my highlight ‘if’ which is lovely, with plenty of dynamic shifts to keep the interest, and some impressive sections of prog-infused groove. You can feel them jamming along together and that sense of a band locked in together and it’s a great feeling to get swept along with. Indeed, on nearly all listens I tended to zone out towards the end of it and get snapped back to reality in the last minute or so of ‘Downward Spirals’ when the drums kick in. That track itself has a discernible early nineties Tool feel to its rhythm and pacing without being obvious.
The final track ‘The Protocol’ is again shorter and is a confident, chugging song which again brings the AIC feel back to prominence. Aside from a significant, but easily correctable issue of the title track placement, this is a good album, there are bags of groove to it and a nice melting pot of many complementary styles.
A solid bit of production capturing the life energy of the performance, all in all, this is a damn good album, but feel free to experiment with the running order.
Buy the album here: https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/oreyeon-equations-for-the-useless
7 / 10
RICH PRICE