Oriz is a new band from Sweden, that was founded in 2009, but now already releases their second production: ‘II’. The band is described by it’s records-label as ‘Classic new melodic metal in the finest way from Sweden. If you like bands such as Rainbow, Deep Purple, Whitesnake but also newer bands such as Jorn, Gotthard & Edguy.’
A pretty good recommendation don’t you think, remembering that ‘the finest way from Sweden’ brought us bands like Europe, Narnia, Treat, Jerusalem, Golden Resurrection and ReinXeed in the past.
But before you read on… please forget you ever heard Oriz in the same sentence as this bands listed here. Sure, Oriz might be ‘a way from Sweden’, but it’s a road less traveled and certainly not the finest!
‘Forever Free’ starts with a happy keyboard. The first 3 seconds I’m happily surprised with the melodic approach, but it is already in the 4th second that I realise the keyboard-sound is far below average. Every highschool-band has this cheap sound on student-music-nights. In ‘Put Out The Flame’ it gets even worse… what is this…? A demo from an Atari-game-computer? I remember a keyboard in Laudamus’ demo-EP ‘Ready Or Not’ that was even better than this… and that was 18 years ago!
The keyboard-player is not mentioned as a band-member, so I hope he is released after the recordings of ‘II’. I choose to ignore everything the keyboard does in the songs, as it is all in the same vein as above mentioned. Except for a few moments in ‘The Cage’, it’s no addition to the songs. Having said that, I realise that the total band-sound would be rather empty without it, but still…
You know what? I already lost my desire to point out the ‘growing-points’ for this band. The vocals are quite flat, the production is messy and the bass is hard to be found in the final mix.
I’ve been writing reviews for over 20 years now and it’s my policy to adress the positive things about albums too, even if it’s ‘not so good’. I can’t even remember when it was the last time I had such a hard time finding it. I could applaud the slower approach in ‘Desert Rider’, but just playing slow is not enough… the song never gets the doomy atmosphere it needs. I could mention the nice lead-guitar-moment and low-voice-thoughts in ‘Captured’, the diversity-ideas in ‘Broken’ and the twin-guitars in ‘Living’ but still that is a little small don’t you think?
So I suggest I better draw your attention to the final song ‘A Glimpse Of Light And Denial’. It has no keyboards and no vocals… you just hear a bunch of rockers throwing in a pile of energy, enjoying being in the practise-room (please don’t tell me this is the actual recording-studio!)
Sorry guys, sorry Oriz, I totally enjoy your passion in the final song, but be honest to each other and have the nerves to admit that this album is nothing more than an nice demo that would probably have gotten you a record-deal in the ’80’s, but for today… there is a lot more work to do!
Rating: 3,5/10
(written by Hans van Vuuren, October 2011)
Tracklist:
1 Forever Free
2 Desert Rider
3 Put Out The Flame
4 This Feeling
5 Captured
6 Your Lies
7 Broken
8 The Cage
9 Glimpse Of Light And Denial
10 Living
Bandmembers:
Alexander Oriz – Lead guitar
David Mauritzon – Guitar
Mattias Eriksson – Vocals
Emil Eriksson – Drums
Christopher Davidsson-Bass
Weblinks: Myspace
Label: Dootlittle Group / Liljegren Records / 2011
