Orchid Symmetry’s self-titled EP arrives like a concentrated freight train that captures what the experience of their live set feels and sounds like. It’s urgent, tightly wound, and willing to bruise one in all the right ways. The three piece of Damian Wilde, Chris Hill and Will Spears have taken the raw collision points between punk, metal, and alt-rock and turned them into short and sharp statements that favour momentum over indulgence. Damian Wilde’s vocals sways with essences of Matt Bellamy of Muse to that of the late Layne Staley. While the guitar parts are heavily overdriven they are carefully shaped with the bass locking in like a piston and the drums driving the songs forward with a relentless sense of timing.
What lifts the EP above a straight up noise assault is the songwriting. With the riffs arriving as hooks, the trio knows how to let a melody or a rhythmic twist breathe for exactly the right amount of time before pushing back into aggression. There’s grit in the performances but more so there is space that allows each instrument room to cut through. The impact isn’t a wall but a sequence of focused hits.
Opener, “Like the Sun” acts like a fuse that sets off the rest of the EP while “Feeding the Wolves”, “Cannonball”, and “Lies They Tell You” pivot between full throttle charge and moments of controlled chaos. Each reveal a band that can temper fury with craft while closer “Sadistic” is blunt with the kind of kinetic energy that makes one once to bounce off the walls or dive head first into a pit.
Orchid Symmetry’s EP demonstrates that this is a band that can translate their stage presence into concise recorded mediums. It’s not a subtle design, but it’s one that is smart, efficient, and memorable. It’s a set of songs that point to a group growing more precise without losing the heat that made them worth watching in the first place.
