Now and again, a band comes out of nowheresville and completely shakes the online metal forums. Reddit, RateYourMusic, and other metal sites that I'm a part of seem to be going batshit crazy over Ordh, a new quartet from grand ole Brattleboro, Vermont, who have released their first album, "Blind in Abyssal Remains," via Pulverised Records. They claim to play "cosmic death metal," a genre that has seen a ridiculous influx in popularity after Blood Incantation. Heavy ambience, science fiction-inspired lyrics, and psychedelic instrumentation are the biggest signs that you're listening to "cosmic death metal," and Ordh largely depends on these elements to further their otherworldly sound.

What makes this record even more otherworldly is that the songs average about eight-and-a-half minutes, meaning that their dissonant, spacey sounds have more than enough time to swallow you whole. The lead single and the album's opener, "Apis Bull," is an example of said swallowing, but on a concise scale. Six minutes is laughable to Ordh, as in that runtime, we hear Jonathan's Lovecraftian gutturals soar over the band's dense and complicated playing. The same can be said, on a greater scale, about the epic tracks. The title track is a twelve-minute monolith with mindblowing technicality and dissonance that takes the lead single and contorts it in ways unknown. Many of the band members hail from sludge metal bands, and I can totally hear remnants of sludge through the plodding tempos and slower-paced segments. You must have patience to wade through the psychedelic depths of the "Phlegraean Fields" or to travel to the "Moon of Urd," but if you just let Ordh's prog-influenced instrumentation take you there, you'll have one amazing time.

Ordh relies on technicality as much as ambience, and they adopt progressive metal attitudes frequently, just like the godfathers of their niche. "Blind in Abyssal Remains" features Dylan, Joshua, and Graham at their highest prowess, riffing and blast beating with lovely proficiency. The guitars, both regular and bass, just sound plain cool as they soar about. The drums take the honor of directing which time signature the group takes, more often than not, something irregular. It's hard to find a happy medium between ambience and full-force musicianship, but Ordh has! Maybe this "cosmic death metal" thing isn't just a fad...

I can totally see why the underground is losing its mind over Ordh's new LP. The gang shot out a banger of a record from the subterranean depths of that album cover and impressed everyone, myself included.