Orthodox

Originating from Seville in southern Spain, Orthodox is an avant-garde doom metal band who add strong free jazz-tinged influences to their essential metal sound, founded on hypnotic repetition of quasi-mystical intensity and slow, torpid rhythms befitting people from a city of crushing summer heat. Seville itself has had other strong influences on the band: they started out performing in the hooded robes of the Sevillian penitential brotherhoods (although they now dress more conventionally) and they have talked of the annual Semana Santa procession in the city as a source of inspiration for their music (‘Ofícío de Tinieblas’ from their debut album 'Gran Poder' relates to a Semana Santa tradition, for instance). Orthodox's second album saw them extending the doom metal basis of their debut with the addition of clarinets and trumpets, causing comparisons to be made to King Crimson and Captain Beefheart, while the following album, 'Sentencia', dispensed with guitars almost completely in favour of piano, trumpet and upright bass on the 26-minute track 'Ascensión'. The centrality of doom metal to the band has, however, been re-emphasised by 'Baal', their album from 2011. Orthodox releases have been issued by the cult US label Southern Lord but they are signed to the Spanish label Alone Records, based in Malaga. Members: Marco Serrato Gallardo (Bass, Vocals) and Borja Díaz Vera (Drums). Former and founding member: Ricardo Jiménez Gómez (Guitar).