The first release I heard from Barr was Orthrelm's Ov, and it remains my favorite. At first I listened to it solely as an endurance test, but once I got used to the sound I started really appreciating the minimalism. The repetition of a lightning speed guitar riff for minutes on end seems to really bring out the noise of the pick on the strings until it becomes the focus. I can hear variations in the way the pick hits the strings and I wonder if it is intentional or simply a reflection of the fact that Barr's technique isn't perfect. Whether he intended it or not, the effect is the same. After hearing that, I always listen for pick noise as a hallmark of Barr's playing. There are certain parts of Krallice songs where the pick noise dominates and I really love it in that context.
That's not the only thing I like about Ov, and maybe not even the main thing, but it's the easiest to put into words.
Back to Annwn. Like I said, it's been on for the past two hours, and I think I finally got sick of listening to it. I'm actually not going to talk about the album. I'll just be blunt. That's the way this blog is going to be. Posts about one album that talk about another. Posts that don't provide any insight into the album at hand, or even much of an opinion. Fact is that I don't have that much to say about Annwn just yet, but I didn't want to call the post Ov because I haven't actually listened to that for a year.
I don't hear any arguments from my nonexistent readers, so I'm just going to go with it.
