Hailing from France, Progressive/Post Black Metal band OROB formed in 2010. To date, they have released two EPs, and one full-length, and now present their latest EP here titled "Golden Tears of Love and Sorrow." The EP has five songs, and "Annonciation" is first: a short mood-setter. The mood is tense, and somber, and gives you an anticipatory sense. The symphonic elements are great. Segueing into "Sun, Borrowed," the mood lightens a bit, with some melody in the guitars. But the bottom end is firm. Harmonized vocals are a bit of a surprise, but they work well with shadowy music. Harsh vocals follow, the mood darkens, and aggressiveness is raised. It's Progressive, without being pretentious.

"Sulfur Baptism" has choppy rhythms, thick and animated bass notes, and a strong sense of musical prowess. Some of the chord progressions take you to unfamiliar places at times also. In that sense, the music feels fresh. "Meditations on Hope" is a dreamy and calm offering, but there is tension hidden in each pass. The title is fitting…it is indeed a study of perhaps the greatest thing in the world…hope. "Inverter" is the final song, and it begins fairly gentle, but meaty bass notes swoop in with harsh vocals. During the chorus, harmonized leads take over, but a thick sense of warning remains in the music. One of the best features of the song is how they shift the landscape so many times while holding onto the core sound.

France is one of the hot beds for modern Metal these days. The album walks a feral line of Post-Black Metal and the expanding horizons of Progressive Metal that it keeps brushing up against like a hand on a forbidden door. It's harsh, but not primitive, expansive, but never polished to sterility. The interplay creates a kind of emotional chiaroscuro. You feel the darkness, but you can also sense the shapes surviving within it. It's music that claws upward even as it sinks deeper, and that contradiction is what makes it compelling.