loading...
uneventful - 31%
Recently, I decided to delve headfirst into my Czech heritage and decided to start listening to some heavy metal music from the Czech Republic. My family has been away from the Czech Republic for a long time, and unfortunately, me and my mum do not have the ability to speak Czech, so I don't really understand anything that Orient is trying to say on these two succinct songs. Orient is probably one of the oldest rock bands from the Warsaw Pact counties, forming around 1964. I find the date of the formation of this band to be a little suspicious because back then, there was little freedom of speech and expression, and Alexander Dubcek, the famed Communist reformer, only came to power in 1968, not that it really matters since his reforms were overturned once he was removed from power.
During the early 1960s, heavy metal was not yet an established genre and most bands who come from this era of the 20th century cannot really be identified as being "heavy metal". In the case of Orient, this doesn't matter much. There isn't really anything which can be deduced to be heavy, and the band promoted itself as a simple rock band. Although these two songs were released on tape in 1979, the music definitely sounds much older than that. The motifs in these two songs, make the listener recall bands such as Pink Floyd, and even romantic pop music which was very popular during the post-WWII period.
The music is very synth-heavy and creates a very cosmic atmosphere. The music is also extremely vocals-oriented, this is evidenced by how much force the vocals exert on both of the songs. The guitars take a secondary role and do not add much to the whole music, The bass is mixed very loud, and sometimes overpowers both the drums and the guitar. During certain moments on both songs, both the bass player and the guitarists make some mistakes. Also, the drummer seems to be in a whole god-damn universe of his own and doesn't sound or play in cohesion with the rest of his band-mates. This sloppiness in the playing of the instruments also uncovers sloppiness in song-writing. Both songs are very short and have an annoying level of poppiness. Although these two songs might appeal to the general masses, this stripped-down type of song-writing passes off as laziness in my eyes.
The first song is called "Dals mi lásku", and can be described as a soft rock song. The female vocalist sounds out of tune throughout a lot of significant moments in both songs, however, there's a certain charm in her pedestrian vocal delivery. This vocal style is very relatable and expresses strong emotions. Such a task is very difficult to achieve most of the time, however, Jana Robbová manages to pull this mammoth task very well, and make it seem effortless. The second song is the "heavier", or more appropriately, quite more upbeat than the opening track, the first single. There's isn't anything noticeable about this song, except for the fact that it sounds extremely similar to the music on Pink Floyd's first three albums. Overall, these two songs didn't really excite me or managed to grab my full, undivided attention. I can see this band's potential to create some interests, but other than that, there's literally nothing special about these two songs.
