The title sounds enough like H.P. Lovecraft to make one assume that
Orthrelm are your basic death metal merchants, but the Washington D.C.-based guitar-drum duo are a lot weirder and much more interesting than that. Yes, there are elements of death metal in Mick Barr's ultra-shred guitar style and Josh Blair's neck-snapping tempos, but there's at least as much
Sonny Sharrock and John Bonham, among other influences you wouldn't expect from an album featuring this title and cover art. The 27-minute album is divided into 15 tracks, but one suspects that this was accomplished through after-the-fact editing; it wouldn't be a surprise to learn that
Norildivoth Crallos Lomrixth Urthiln is the result of one extended guitar and drum freak-out that was (shades of the early
Amon Düül albums) then cut and pasted into separate tracks. This is a true rarity, an album that fans of
Slayer,
King Crimson and
Eugene Chadbourne should be able to get into about equally. ~ Stewart Mason