Published: May 2, 2023

Orphans Of Dusk bring the gloom on their new album, the interestingly titled Spleen. You get all sorts of gothic doom on Spleen, with some elements of death/doom, and is an album where the band wears their influences firmly on their sleeves to the point that we may want to replace the word “influence” with “worship”. This is not always a bad thing. How many times have I written “Sabbath Worship” in a review? A lot. But let’s see if the band can forge their own path instead of re-creating from the masters.

Type O Negative comes right to mind when you hear the real opening track after the instrumental interlude. You can hear it in the voice for sure, leaning towards the heavier and doomier Type O material. But to me, this band is Woods Of Ypres more than anything else. Wasted Hero sounds like it could have been in Woods IV without skipping a beat. The Woods comparison holds up more, mostly because of the death/doom aspects of Spleen. With Type O you get more sense of humor, whereas Woods was always more serious to me, which is why I would lean more in that direction. But you get really cool atmosphere on the track. I love the subtle keys in I’m Going To Haunt You (When I Die), which opens with some death growls, but morphs into a catchy chorus which you have no choice to harken back to David Gold’s vocal and lyrical work with Woods. 

Aurora Australis is a real slow death/doom burner, with alternating screams and clean baritone vocals and is a song that is gloom personified, with more of those keys sprinkled into the funeral procession. The track does pick up a bit throughout the eight-minute dirge but always brings you back way, way down. The minimalist middle parts of a couple of the songs is right out of the Type O playbook, along with the guitar slide to bring us back to the heavy. The title track is killer goth/doom and would be the song I would play to get folks interested in the record, with a section that is so Type O you may think you are hearing a lost track. The closer, Falling Star, is my favorite track on Spleen, opening with some rather cheery synths (for this band) and sounds the least like a B-side from the bands mentioned above.

If I had some feedback to give, it would be some of the tracks drag a bit and occasionally the record feels longer than the fifty-minute run time, but even the best Type O records can feel long. The difference is those albums actually are. I would also love to see the bad venture away from the worship and forge some of their own path while leveraging their love of those great bands, like they did on Falling Star.

This album is not for the faint of heart or for anyone looking for a pick me up. Spleen is as gloomy as it gets. If you like the bands I mentioned and can hang with some of the death growls, this is some solid goth/doom. I you had a Peter Steele poster on your wall or still long for the snowy Canadian death/doom of Woods Of Ypres this one may be of interest to you. Spleen is well executed with zero excuses given by Orphans Of Dusk for sounding like their musical heroes. 7/10