Dormant Ordeal – Tooth and Nail
Release Date: 18th April 2025
Label: Willowtip Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Progressive Death Metal, Technical Death Metal, Dissonant Death metal, Blackened Death Metal.
FFO: Hath, Ulcerate, Rivers of Nihil, Behemoth, 1914, Serpent of Old.
Review By: Rick Farley
In 2021 I had the pleasure of reviewing Poland’s death metal duo Dormant Ordeal’s third full length album, The Grand Scheme of Things. At the time, I was basically new to the band and honestly felt like I had just discovered a completely unknown gem. Turns out for me, I was correct, that album went on to be included in my years end list as one of the top ten releases of 2021. Except The Grand Scheme of Things wasn’t so hidden, as that record also made a lot of other people’s list as well. Point is, I also got my dirty little mitts on Tooth and Nail, the bands newest album unleashing via Willowtip Records on April 18th, 2025. Will it live up to the magnificence of their last record, and will the band become the next crowned kings, as I had originally proclaimed? Let’s find out.
Tooth and Nail on the surface seems like the logical successor to that record. Only intensely upgraded on nearly every level. From the heightened production to the more streamlined songwriting, this feels like an intensely different beast reborn from the same DNA and pumped full of acidic blood. The complex atmospheric elements have been amped up in the way things are textured. It’s still structurally dissonant but in a more layered, accessible way. The retooled brutality is equally nasty but showing flourishes of brightened melody. In some ways its ugliness radiates more refulgent now with additional contrasting colours breaking through its brutishness. Blackened menace, gloomy greys, and prismatic ferocity all twisted up into a spectrum of ethereal violence. The technicality of the musicianship and songwriting remains jaw dropping but not in the pure wankery way that you’ll get from most soulless tech-death, this is precise, intricate aggression that you can also feel in your psyche. Without a doubt, Dormant Ordeal is the same band as they were, but you can instantly feel a different vibe here.
In the simplest terms, Dormant Ordeal is an unconventional technical death metal band that utilizes progressive, dissonant, and blackened elements to create an oppressive, atmospheric soundscape that will just as easily turn your bones to dust as it will celestially haunt you with cerebral assault. The mesmerizing, airiness swaying at the beginning of Halo of Bones is there to further enhance the impact of the unrelenting hell to come. A sudden blast of percussive war reigning down upon your fragile embodiment. Twisting riffs swaggering in and out of blistering and jagged, this track is gut churning upon its immediate detonation. The eeriness of the clean guitars that begin Solvent lead to a pulsing tribalistic build that’s deceivingly unguarded yet unafraid to show its shadowy dread. Ghostly passages of emotive chord changes move your thoughts from serene to trepidation to numb. The whispers in the background that become harsh growls adds torment to an already tension filled ambiance. Blackened enough to be searing intensity but atmospheric in its overall feel, resulting in an otherworldly terror-stricken essence. Closing track, Wije i Mary (Pt. 2) is a progressive death metal instrumental that wraps up the album convincingly, with all the elements of the band coming full circle. The opulent melodies, the inventive leads, the creative harsh structures, it all just works, and it puts a satisfying completion on a chilling, journey filled peek into hellish death metal dimensions.
Although the previous album was a straight-up killer, I believe Tooth andNail is even better. Albeit in a slightly separate way; not in brutality or musicianship or even songwriting, but rather in the way when a band finally achieves the sound they’ve been searching for and executes it flawlessly. This is death metal perfection on every level. In my world, the kings have been crowned.
(5 / 5)
