Frostbite Orckings: more simulation than stimulation
WHEN IT COMES to the enduring image of man vs machine, The Terminator’s ‘human skull getting crushed by a robot foot’ takes some beating. But what James Cameron didn’t –and perhaps couldn’t – show us was the fact that when the machines rise up, they’ll do it dressed as orcs. Singing jaunty second-rate Amon Amarth songs. Oh, the inhumanity.
Billed as the world’s first AI-generated metal album, there will be suspicion levelled at Frostbite Orckings’ The Orcish Eclipse. And we get it; even the name sounds more like keyword generation than the cheesy-but-effective, erm, elegance of Dragonforce or Hammerfall.
On its own merits, The Orcish Eclipse plays out like an oh-so-faithful take on epic sword-and-board metal championed by European bands such Amon Amarth, Brothers Of Metal and so many other dresser-uppers. But while the likes of Orcs Don’t Cry and Into The Void are whimsical and bring the bombast that fans of those same bands will likely appreciate, tracks such as Hammers High are so shamelessly derivative that it borders on the offensive.
Therein lies the rub: Frostbite Orckings are an entity that is destined to imitate. While the songs (generally) aren’t so bad as to consign them to the bottom of the bargain bin –though daft Europop-flavoured closer Endless Love comes close –they also lack the inherent glee of a manic Johan Hegg beating the shit out of a gigantic sea serpent that drives home the sense that the music means something to those making it.