I seldom fail to be impressed with folks who take the huge step into the unknown and are prepared to present to the world the music they have created from thoughts or dreams they have held sometimes for many years. I know several who have done this to a great reception and widespread acclaim.
Obviously everyone would like that, which is why reviews can matter through helping to raise awareness and, hopefully, allow an artist to gain traction and, in their profile being raised, generate both interest and push sales forward. I certainly hope this is the case for this Orion album, ‘The End Of Suffering’, as it is most definitely worthy of attention.
A little background might help here, Orion is the name chosen for Ben Jones’s concept album that came about after he read Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power Of Now, which deals with how we address our own internal dialogue between the past and the present. It talks about a personal awakening and enlightenment which incorporates the Buddhist concept that enlightenment is the beginning of the end of suffering. Quite a lofty concept but one rooted in the aspect of how time controls us and makes us slaves to its demands as we struggle to get done what we need to in the time allotted to us. It’s a never ending game of cat and mouse and one that drains, frustrates and depresses on a daily basis. As we are forever chasing our own tails, all for the Mammon at the end of the day/month/year, it’s soul destroying really and this album addresses that cycle in its lyrics.
This album was 20 years in the making, with the book being a pivotal moment towards personal enlightenment and acceptance. Furthermore, the album was entirely self financed, performed and recorded by Ben Jones, with no intent other than to get the album completed and out to a world and see what happened as a result. Ben also made the CD available on bandcamp at a most reasonable price to encourage folks to listen for themselves. All of which is very laudable but is it any good?
Well this reviewer finds it is a really good listen and, once you understand it’s concepts and ideas, it’s both satisfying and musically very rewarding indeed.
The album begins with a gentle piano motif that is recurrent at times throughout the whole record before a huge riff commences that really opens the sound vista wide. It’s a very impressive riff that really works well and fades to some frenzied fretwork before resuming and then quietening down a little, more power chords then play the track out. As an instrumental opener Now is a very strong and gripping track, this fades to fast strummed acoustic guitar that opens the second track, In The Beginning. This is a pretty epic song with that great recurring acoustic guitar and a great bass part to it. There is a blistering middle section with lots of frantic bass and crunchy riffing guitar parts and a tidy but brief solo, it sounds double tracked and all the better for that too,
Tomorrow is about how what we do leaves its mark in time and that we should do all we can to make that impression a good one. Again, this has a lot going on throughout and also has a fine solo. It’s a very strong track taken at a pace that doesn’t let up and, with great vocals, it’s one of my favourites thus far. The Hurricane is about the the battles of middle life and keeping control during it. There is another monstrous riff running through it all, making it quite a hard number but a powerful one that leads into Yesterday and its melancholy for the middle years and the opportunities that now seem squandered, again this is a rather epic song of regrets and missed chances.
Out Of Time is about the realisation that it’s too late and time has gone for you, a rather sobering song really as it faces that difficult reality. Myself and I is about the enlightenment and that time is an illusion of the mind and Out Of Time pt. 2 is the reality that time is a concept and how he is not constrained or beholden to it any longer. The End Of Suffering is the last track of the album and brings us back full circle as it has a similar opening as the beginning of the album and is an excellent closer to a most unusual and somewhat different album. This track has a wall of sound effect at times, similar to Devin Townsend’s dense sound. This track has everything happening at once it is manic and urgent despite being a mid tempo piece. It really is most impressive I really like it.
There is great musicianship and intelligence to this album, okay, it might help to have read the book to fully understand the concept, something I will do for myself in the coming weeks. All in all ‘The End of Suffering’ is a most wonderful release, I highly commend it to all, especially those who like their prog harder and less symphonic.
More info at:
Orion Music – Home (orion-music.co.uk)
Released 5th June, 2023.
Order from bandcamp here:
The End of Suffering | Orion (bandcamp.com)