If there was ever a band who don’t live up to their name then it’s surely Nashville’s Orthodox. With their chaotic rhythms and music that suddenly veers off on impossible tangents, their moniker should really be unorthodox. However, it is indicative of the way this straight edge metalcore crew mess with the listener’s expectations and preconceived ideas. Their latest full length album is titled A Door Left Open and it almost dares you to step through and have you’re senses crushed and frazzled by some of the heaviest music this side of the millennium.
Like a musical version of Flann O’Brien’s novel The Third Policeman, A Door Left Open immediately flips the world on its head. ‘Can You Save Me?’ is introduced by guitars which ring like warning sirens and a riff that has been dredged from the ocean’s depths. It’s a heady combination and one which seems to pull the listener in two directions. From here the band mix up tempos and rhythms with reckless abandon, yet inside chaos, order reigns, the five members who comprise Orthodox evidencing an almost telepathic chemistry and deliver the time changes with razor sharp precision. It’s a kind of alchemy in which the band deal, and mash up metallic metalcore with groove metal and add a healthy dose of nu metal swing. The result is as weighty as such an admixture suggests and ensures that cuts such as ‘Godless Grace’ swing like the proverbial wrecking ball.
They say you can judge a band by the company they keep, and tours with the likes of Spite, The Acacia Strain, Kublai Khan TX, and Stick To Your Guns, implies that Orthodox are a heavy beast. However, this quintet’s approach mostly reminds me of Glassjaw (albeit a more metallised version), they share the same kind of sonic invention and desire to explore new realms, and ‘Sacred Place’ boldly takes music to a place where no band has ever been before. Evidencing the band’s crossover appeal, Mastodon’s Brann Dailor brings his heaviness to ‘One Less Body’ whilst Comback Kid’s Andrew Neufeld adds some hardcore flourishes to an ear-splitting ‘Commit To Consequence’.
A Door Left Open invites you to step through, and you’ll be amazed at what you find.
- A Door Left Open is released via Century Media on 6th June 2025.
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Track List:
1. Can You Save Me?
2. Body Chalk
3. Dread Weight
4. Blend In With The Weak (feat. Matt McDougal)
5. Godless Grace
6. Keep Your Blessings
7. Sacred Place
8. Step Inside
9. One Less Body (feat. Brann Dailor)
10. Searching For A Pulse
11. Commit To Consequence (feat. Andrew Neufeld)
12. Will You Hate Me?
