You may have noticed if you have been reading this review update that we have had a bit of an Italian invasion this month. There have been many assorted bands from the country which I favour for pizza, pasta and splatter movies arriving but I reckon The Orange Man Theory are probably the most caustic and full on out of the whole bunch. Their debut ‘Riding A Cannibal Horse From Here To…’ was an album I encountered and gave a couple of spins and from memory it was also quite an aggressive and noisy beast too. The group with the somewhat odd name (the reasoning behind, I also fail on finding) have repeated the same recording formula as before and returned to Nashville Tennessee to cut this under the helm of Today Is The Day enigmatic cult leader Steve Austin.
‘Straight To Extinction’ (well at least after a sample) goes for the throat with grinding riffs and abrasive noisecore vocals. This is fast and furious stuff and shakes you about like a dog with its favourite bone, chunks of meat and gristle flying in all directions. Luckily it’s not all noise for noise sakes and there is an underlying melody to be found here. I cannot fault the track title ‘Gimme Some Goat’ and it builds with some bluesy ACDC sounding riffs and drums before bleating off vocally like the wolf is fast on its tail. The fusing of classic Americana sounding rock sensibilities with slabs of grind works well here and this certainly is a step above a lot of formulaic Italian hardcore which I have had the misfortune to encounter over the years, in fact it comes across at times like Eyehategod mashed up with the aforementioned TITD. ‘On The Dartboard’ pins you well and truly to the spot and combines a stewed out frenzy of riffs, underlying samples and deranged vocals, which as the track implodes, literally retch up all over themselves.
They do like their samples and I am pretty sure the title track starts with one from the ever reliable South Park. The song itself slaps and punches its way into you with groove laden intent, swaggering almost drunkenly and trying not to throw up over itself. This is a rowdy drunk too and it strikes as it wants to start on anyone willing to have a go and to hell with the consequences. There are also some odd time changes and equally strange song titles such as ‘Orange Is The Color Of The High Speed Season’ which even throws some clean vocals into the mix, keeping you on your toes. Apart from a snatch of acoustic guitar on ‘A Rational Mind’ this album pretty much runs amok over its 42 minute running time and leaves you feeling like you have been dragged through a hedge backwards. If that sounds good to you give em a try but you are probably best to approach when pissed rather than the next morning with a hangover.
http://www.myspace.com/theorangemantheory
