ORCumentary – Destroy the Dwarves – Album Review

Source // www.merchantsofair.com

When an album arrives heralding a mix of Death, Power, Folk and Industrial Metal you just know it’s going to go one of two ways….it’s either going to be so bat shit crazy that it enters the realm of brilliance or else it’s going to be absolute pants. Destroy The Dwarves, the new album from ORCumentary unfortunately falls into the latter category.

To be fair the warnings signs are there from the start. When you note that the only band member goes by the name of Orc Adams and his instrument of choice is “the Keyboard of Mayhem”, the journey down the slippery slope to obnoxious parody has all but begun. In all fairness, the ‘band’ do not take themselves too seriously and there is nothing wrong with a sense of humour in music, however it has to be done well and in this case it’s a joke that falls flat on its ass.

The mix of genres just doesn’t work either. A handful of effects on the vocals does not mean it can be classed as Industrial and  Folk Metal can be a tricky style to master at the best of times. The bands that do it well have an obvious affinity for the music – such as Korpiklaani, Eluveitie and Tyr – and mix their Metal with authentic folk instruments and traditional vocal stylings. That’s not the case here; keyboards mimicing authentic instruments just come across as cheap and hastily thrown together and dilute the overall effect ORCumentary were obviously aiming for.

There are a number of points on the album which give glimmers of hope and these can be found on “Into Their Cavernous Hole We Plunge” – A metaphor? We hope not – and “The Orctogenarian” – nice pun – which do have original sounding and atmospheric keyboard lines and prove that Orc Adams has potential and obvious talent bubbling away underneath the gallons of spilled Dwarf blood.

The bio for this album promised so much but frankly it fails to deliver on all counts. One can only assume the Dwarves were easily destroyed by having them listen to this album! 3/10