Orn filled the Smiling Buddha in Toronto with a palpable wall of doom last Friday night. Dense waves of feedback and a low-end throb were felt as much as heard by the enthusiastic crowd that packed the venue. They played a two-song set that still clocked in at 30 minutes.
Orn isn’t quite your typical doom metal band. The long, droning songs and the tortured wail of vocalist Adam Cooper are classic doom. But the structure is minimal to the point of being avant-garde. Cooper, guitarist Dan Ross and drummer Justin Smith created an affecting soundscape of feedback and simple, heavy beats.
The three of them started the band a year ago, and have only played one other show. Ross, a shaggy, bearded political science doctoral candidate, commented on Orn’s slow, steady pace before the show.
“Like all things in doom metal we move very, very slowly,” Ross said.
They drew a surprisingly mixed crowd. The usual metal heads in bullet belts and ratty hair rubbed shoulders with hipsters in bandanas and Cons. Doom metal has gotten a stamp of approval from magazines like Vice, and another Toronto-based doom outfit, Nadja, has gotten coverage in mainstream media.
Everyone seemed equally caught up in the music though. Any song that can hold your attention for 20 minutes has to be good. The crowd pressed right up to the edge of the stage, and even the most detached hipsters rocked out to the pulses of noise.
Orn have just released an EP, Teeth/Knowing. They plan to gig around Toronto and eventually release a full-length album.
Unlike other bands in the doom scene, like Sunn 0))), who put on pretentious, conceptualized shows, an Orn show is refreshingly down to earth. They’re just three guys in black playing their hearts out, no props or robes needed.
“There’s nothing complicated or tricky, it doesn’t ask you to be over-sophisticated or to intellectualize what you’re looking to do,” Ross said. “It’s just big, loud, stupid music. I think sometimes people just want to listen to big, loud, stupid music.”
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