#ormen lange

[elojoinoportuno]

Ormen Lange

[nimblermortal]

Hm. Turns out the Long Serpent is part of Faroese tradition, which is why I was confused - there is a saga about it, but it’s not an Icelandic saga.

You can read about it on Wikipedia, including a rather fascinating description of a horrible torture. Oooooooh, shiny.

[flameintobeing]

wtf is the villa of Ormen that’s the big question here

i’m thinking it has to do with this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ormen_Lange_(longship)

but who knows

[portlyadolescence]

Deafheaven w/ Marriages & Ormen Lange (Subterranean, July 6, 2013)

Rating: A-

“Sorry dude, it’s sold out.”

“What? But it’s my fucking birthday,” says a kid wearing cargo shorts, polo t-shirt, white tennis shoes, and thick white socks. Deafheaven really has broken musical boundaries.

The show was at Subterranean, a small Wicker Park venue. Despite the name, the place is actually a floor above the street. The stage is small, the room narrow (this doesn’t promote great visibility). Still it’s a very cool room and appears to have been a very swanky place during some prior usage.

Up first was a local opener, Ormen Lange. The four piece played noisy, instrumental sludge metal similar to another local band: Pelican. When we first walked in, it was really loud and I dug it, but it was hard to stay interested as the set dragged on towards 40 minutes. That’s because every song they played was basically the same. There was some riffage, heavy or melodic, and then the main guitarist would solo a little bit. Maybe it was improvised, I don’t know. The other guitarist was super in it to it, and the bassist did seem more adept than most. It was fine, but I got bored after a bit (Rating: B-).

Next were Marriages, a band featuring two members of Red Sparrows. They too had a little sludge metal running through their sound courtesy of the steady chugging from the bassist and drummer—I was a little reminded of Made Out of Babies at times—but were a little more focused on dreamy soundscapes. While the boys riffed full speed ahead, singer/guitarist Emma Ruth Rundle filled in with some shoegaze guitars and passionate, heavily-echoed vocals. When the shoegaze parts kicked in, I was really into the music, but other times I had a hard time connecting due to lots of talking people. I was also pretty tired at this point, so I kind of drifted off a bit. But maybe that’s a good thing (Rating: B).

Deafheaven live is all George Clarke. While he doesn’t wear corpse paint and looks like he should be modeling suits or something, Clarke is one of the more intense frontmen I’ve seen. He does a lot of intense staring, thrusts himself around, sticks fingers in his mouth, and, in general, just looks menacing. Clarke also took a couple of dives into the crowd, and I got to touch his head. Kevin touched him several times. His howls and screams were right on the money.

The rest of the band, apart from their new, thundering drummer, mostly just stood there shoegazing. They played a short set of just five songs: three from Sunbather, two from Roads to Judah. Including a break before the encore—the killer opener to Roads to Judah, “Violet”—the whole set was about 50 minutes. I certainly wanted more, but it’s probably hard to play such intense music for even that long.

Regardless, these guys are one of the most interesting, promising metal bands out there right now. A lot of hyped up bands don’t live up to it, but Deafheaven soared. Oh yeah, they must have ended up letting in the birthday boy. He seemed to be having a great time, awkwardly bobbing along to the music.

-James P.

[soundphrasefury]

Black As Night

The guys of Chicago instrumental rock band, Ormen Lange, talk about the freedom of being without a vocalist, the allure of vinyl albums,and the process of creating their latest release, Black.

SPF: Talk to me about your upcoming album, Black. Kevin Richter [Bass]: This album is quite different than our self-titled EP but it is still very “us” at its core. We went into it knowing we wanted a thicker sound, and adding Mike [Thomas] on guitar was exactly what we were looking for. To me, this album represents a giant step in us further discovering our sound, progressing as musicians, and, most importantly, becoming a tighter band.

SPF: How was the process different than recording your self-titled EP? KR : The album was recorded at Chrome Attic Studio in Crystal Lake by Daniel Good. It was a totally different process than our self-titled EP. Chrome Attic is an amazing facility where you can stay for the weekend and really separate yourself from normal life. We recorded this album live as well. We were all in the live room together just like we are at a show or at practice. Our self-titled EP was recorded in the same basement that we practice in. Our friend Marlon Aquilar set up a makeshift studio for the weekend with his own gear. We recorded that album in the traditional sense of doing each instrument separately: drums, bass, and then guitar.

SPF: Explain what people can expect? Mike Thomas [Guitar]: Honestly, I think people can expect a diverse album, especially if you get a copy of the vinyl, with the intro/outro and interludes between each track. Then, you are really seeing the different sides of the band, which are each member’s styles and influences. But, when brought together, we get what is Ormen Lange, and ultimately this album Black. It’s heavy, it’s pretty, it grooves, and it rocks.

SPF: Black is available through digital download as well as vinyl. Why did you decide to also go the old-school route? KR : Personally, I’m an avid vinyl collector, and I think the same can be said for the rest of the band. That alone makes this release extra exciting for me. Going into this project, we had a sound in mind, and we knew that recording to tape and pressing it to vinyl was the best medium for that sound. This album is best heard on vinyl. Dane Rupp [Guitar]: To me, a vinyl possesses a warm organic sound that you don’t get with digital music. The warm sound brings listeners inside the studio with us, and that is exactly what we wanted. Ormen Lange is meant to be experienced live, hence recording it live in the studio.

SPF: What was creating your vinyl and cover like. I see you made parts of it very DIY . Take me through that whole project. KR : Yes we did all of the vinyl art totally DIY. Brett [Rupp] is familiar with a lot of art/construction/craft projects so he was able to put together the process to make it happen. We sourced blank black vinyl jackets as our starting point. The process for the front cover was: print 100 Ormen Lange logos on high quality photo paper, cut them out and glue them dead center onto the jacket. For the back we created a few stencils with all the text, then stenciled it on with spray paint. We stuck to 3 colors: silver, green, and purple, and did a handful of different fades and blends to keep all them all different. We hand numbered the jackets and put them in protective clear sleeves.

READ THE REST OF THE INTERVIEW

[phantomnoteproductions]

WATCH OUT!