Heartworms: A Comforting Notion EP Evaluation – multifaceted dystopian rage

Now releasing her paradoxically titled EP debut, A Comforting Notion, she revels in 4 dystopian-leaning songs, providing advanced vocals, trance hooks, and well-integrated sonic textures.

Opener “Constant Dedication” reveals Orme delivering indirect lyrics whereas transitioning via sensual dreamscapes, funereal lulls, and punk-infused freak-outs. Her voice is buoyed by a mixture of bass throbs, synthy thrives, and metronomic percussion.

“Retributions of an Terrible Life” options the band superimposing baroque references and cinematic sweeps over a welter that pulls as a lot from The Matrix and John Wick soundtracks as Trent Reznor and the ecstasy-fueled pulses of rave. Orme pivots between an adrenalized sprechgesang and mock-operatic intonations. Halfway an instrumental section blends an underlying drone and high-pitched accents, making efficient use of fluctuations in quantity.

On the title reduce, Orme’s voice is notably compressed, giving it a “transistor” impact, and dabbed with reverb. Supple and serrated tones are juxtaposed, the band displaying an affinity for audial paradoxes. Pained vocals recall to mind HTRK and Drab Metropolis, although singers Jonnine Standish and Asia lean towards a sadcore vibe, whereas Orme drifts towards what may be dubbed a bipolar delirium. “Take away the chains my wrists are in pressure”, Orme repeats, providing a self-portrait that factors to the broader lack of humanism within the cogs of capitalism and digitalization.

“24 Hours” combines beat flurries and synthy swells, veering between metallic rhythms and techno-inflected crescendos. Orme once more combines a spoken-word model, on this case invoking ennui, and melodic vocals that convey urgency, all of the whereas addressing the socio-existential realities of deep conditioning, materialism, and dissociation.

With A Comforting Notion, Orme strikes between dejection and expostulations of lyrical and musical outrage, one second wallowing in nihilism, the subsequent celebrating the mysteries of start, intercourse, demise, and creativity. She has clearly absorbed a lot of common music’s essential templates, asserting a multifaceted voice that captures life’s highs, lows, and in-betweens.