Behold, Orbweaver!
Led by Randy Piro, formerly of metal titans Hate Eternal and Gigan, the Miami band exists in a warped world of heavy-metal psychedelia. However, this latest band is a serious departure from Piro's previous projects, as it experiments with everything from breakneck blast beats and tremolo-picked guitar riffs to spooky theremin sounds and wild, off-kilter effects.
So appropriately, Orbweaver recently performed as part of Roofless Records' Cinema Sounds 12: Science Sounds!!! And still flush with inspiration from that show, Piro spoke with New Times about awesome flicks like Tron, sci-fi fandom, and his band's upcoming EP-slash-comic book.
New Times: Which film did you guys soundtrack at Cinema Sounds 12?
Randy Piro: Tron. It is one of my favorite movies in the world. I've probably written 60 percent of my music while watching that movie.
So it was a really big deal to you then?
Oh, totally! And I'm super into soundtrack music, and the soundtrack to Tron is superunderrated. So I've always been attracted to it, ever since I was a kid. I loved the main theme, and when I learned it, I realized it was just a fucking tritone! It was like, "No wonder I'm in love with this chord. It's Satan's chord!"
There has always seemed to be a sci-fi element in Orbweaver.
About 99.9 percent of the music at Cinema Sounds was written specifically for the event, with the exception of one part. I've taken all my music as serious as a heart attack, but this was the most massive thing I've done to date, like, on a personal level. It's marrying two things that I love beyond life itself, which is sci-fi cinema and weird metal music. I've never put more preparation or more of myself into something that I've done.
So what's the dope on the upcoming release, Strange Transmissions From the Neuralnomicon?
We're going to be releasing the EP and digital version ourselves. And Jean Sanz from Shroud Eater has a label called Primitive Violence that is a cassette-only label. We're going to be doing 100 cassettes with her.
I love comic books, and I grew up in the '90s. So we're doing comic cards and a poster of Jean's artwork with 33 of the cassettes. They're going to be based on some of the creatures found within the lyrics.
Jean was the first person to hear the record when it was done. I gave her the album, and she's the only person outside of the band that knows the lyrics to Strange Transmissions From the Neuralnomicon. We're not printing the lyrics to the music, but I gave them to her because the band is conceptual. I create characters and stories that are going to be ongoing. And all of her art and every image that is going to be on the album somehow correlates to the lyrics.
How would you describe Orbweaver to someone that isn't familiar with what you do?
If I had to be specific, speaking to an average metal kid, I'd say we're kind of an experimental black-metal band, because the feeling is black metal in its emotion and atmosphere. And I don't want to be pigeonholed by saying this, but it's almost like early Morbid Angel mixed with Hawkwind and King Crimson. It's very aggressive and death metal at points, but it gets out there! But I don't think we sound specifically like anybody.
