Review: Dorre ‘Fortress’

Belgium is a fascinating country to me. They have a royal family that nobody cares about, a flat land that you can easily travel across by bus for dirt cheap, an impressive collection and three national languages: the good kind, the bad kind and Flemish Dutch. They also have waffles and heavy bands like DORRE.

I discovered them when they played at Desertfest Antwerp in 2016 and, at the time, I remember them being a fairly new band that was gaining some traction, hence their programming. They were days away from releasing their split EP with Bethmoora – who have completely disappeared from my radar after their 2020 debut (and only) full-length album.

Just like their counterparts, the Leuven quintet took their sweet time after their previous release Fall River to give us something new, fresh and exciting. But if I’m writing this review, it is because they have done just that and, let me tell you, they are so back, baby! And if we have one person to thank, it is Désirée Hanssen who signed them to Lay Bare Recordings because they managed to make Fortress –the name of their latest 4-tracker – a very pleasant listen through and through.

It starts with this brilliant slow-burn track called Two Crawled Up The Mountain, which gives us all the tasty stoner rock vibes that we know and love. It is one of those songs that screams ‘festival crowd’ to me. Picture this, you are high as a kite, had a few drinks with your mates, you’re in a state of elation and BAM! You can’t help yourself but to dance to the rhythm, headbang with joy in your soul, and you’re taking it all in. That’s how this track feels.

a smart mixture of post-metal riffs, proggy rhythms and garage rock aspirations, which is as enjoyable as it can get…

But Dorre is also a band that won’t only tap into one formulaic genre because they know what the possibilities of tapping into several formulaic genres can bring when combining them. Which is exactly what they have done with the second (and shortest) track Human Cyborg Relations, a smart mixture of post-metal riffs, proggy rhythms and garage rock aspirations, which is as enjoyable as it can get.

Carbonite was the moment that nearly lost me. I say nearly because at first, I was a bit thrown off, I did not understand where it was going and if it wasn’t for the Star Wars cantina theme section, I would have skipped it. But I continued, gave the song another couple of listens and, honestly, I think it was just a case of giving it more tries to understand the surrounding concept. Now, I’m glad that I ‘got it’, but I’d still give it a few more listens so you don’t give up on the record.

And to close it off Ender is roughly an eleven-minute track where garage rock, stoner rock, doom, heavy metal AND free jazzy bits are colliding for a trippy experience that will leave you fully satisfied and curious. At least, that’s the impression that they gave me when I finished listening to it for this review. I knew that every stoner rock lover will appreciate Fortress for what it is and what is represents.

If I were to recommend it, I’d say ‘jazeker, go for it!’.

Label: Lay Bare Recordings
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram

Scribed by: Nessie Spencer