Black Orchid Empire (BOE) write catchy rock songs for a prog metal audience. Or is it the other way round? We once hoped Tesseract might be the metal band to appeal to Depeche Mode and The Cure’s audience and introduce them to something they might otherwise ignore. But is it still possible to write metal music with a crossover appeal in the age of TikTok and Spotify? It’s doubtful BOE waste too much time on this question, but it must’ve crossed their minds. Why else would they subordinate everything to limited attention spans for album number five?
Fortunately, one thing is clear after the first double-timing drum beat of opener ‘Skinwalker’: this is much more metal than its predecessor. The groove is still important, as are the advanced tenor vocals, yet the guitars rely on their low tunings to bounce and bruise. Here, Paul Visser uses the quieter verses to ruminate before reaching for the distortion pedal in the chorus. The comparisons with Spiritbox are inevitable but ignorant for a band that had this formula down as early as 2015. By contrast, the Tesseract tones of ‘Angelfire’ are more accurate as a reference point. Here, Visser clears his head like Dan Tompkins with a rush of invigorating autumn air. Listen how the guitar rhythms swerve and bite under the hammer of the palm-mute in the main hook and middle eight. If you’ve not seen BOE live, this is an indication of what to expect – monstrous riffs, volatile dynamics, massive chorus rituals, pounding drum grooves. What’s not to like?
The high points of LORE are easy to detect on first listen. ‘The Labyrinth’ is happy to sail into the Meshuggah landscape with a Helmet bass groove and an urgent vocal delivery that creates the illusion of being out of breath before Visser releases the tension in the bridge section. It’s a dark meditation built on chunky riffing, just like its successor, ‘Lost Horizon’, which could teach the metalcore incels out there how to use conventional rock singing in a heavy guitar setting. Whether they can risk the crack of the falsetto as easily as Visser is doubtful.
If there’s a weakness here, it’s the group’s instinct to reach for the verse-chorus format in every song. They do it with great expertise, but it eliminates the element of surprise. Instead, they burnish their prog metal credentials in occasional deviations from 4/4 time signatures. It means they have nowhere to hide if the riffs and drum grooves are substandard, and this is the secret to LORE. It excels in the fundamentals but misses the jackpot.
‘Tristar’ sees the danger of falling into a comfortable radio rock lane and boosts the guitars with a series of sharp stabs rather than standard chord progressions. ‘Blood God’ could make the cut for the next Caligula’s Horse record, but you wonder if creating these accessible prog metal tunes is too easy for Black Orchid Empire. Even with dextrous riffs, body-swerving grooves, and melodious vocal phrasings, it soon becomes clear that Side B is more of the same rather than a daring reinvention. That adage of “they’re good at what they do,” creeps up as you reach the last quarter. We know what this means: the music is enjoyable but not essential.
Which takes us back to the riffs: they’re thrilling enough to sway the listener back in for repeat listens. It also helps that their chorus melodies seldom grow tired. Visser is a real rock singer with the stamina and the range to lead the heavy guitars (see ‘Ivory’ at track eleven). Periphery showed us this month how to change sound and reinvigorate on their new album. Black Orchid Empire have perfected their formula, and they’ll need to change it for their next effort.
Kirk Houghton
Verdict
Release Date: 08/05/2026
Record Label: Year of the Rat Records
Standout tracks: Angelfire; The Labyrinth; Blood God
Suggested Further Listening: Caligula’s Horse – Rise Radiant (2020), VOLA – Witness (2020), Temic – Terror Management Theory (2023)