Orthodox // A Door Left Open // Album Review

Nashville straight edge outfit Orthodox are back once again with another album to shake up the metalcore scene & leave it in ruins.

Formed in 2011 with frontman Adam Easterling & ex-member Tyler Williams (Counterparts) & merging their love for 00s nu-metal, blending the heavy sounds of Slipknot & frantic songwriting of System of A Down to create a heavier & darker version of metalcore.

Their first two albums gave the band a quick buzz but the band’s last two albums 2020’s “Let It Take Its Course & 2022’s “Learning to Dissolve” saw the group harness & focus their efforts, making a signature Orthodox sound & giving the band their down brand of fractured breakdowns, sinister dark vocals & complex but groove heavy tracks.

Their newest & fourth album, “A Door Left Open,” is the most precise & concentrated Orthodox album to date! Opener “Can You Save Me?” right from its first second fills you with unease & dread from Austin Evans’ now perfectly warped minded guitar riffs, while Easterling’s first guttural growl fills your ears. The whole band unleashes in this furry of a track. Fast blasting, second, to slightly slower moments, allowing you to take everything in. All climaxing to the tracks’ bridge that builds & builds until the tracks end. Giving you everything already in this first track is what you want from an Orthodox record.

Following it, “Body Chalk” is a just over a minute track filled with absolute chaos. Evoking that early Slipknot sound, this one is pure aggression. Sweeping chords that sound like a swarm of bees pull you in while drummer Mike White’s hard-hitting style fills the track & keeps the pulse driving forward. This track might be over quick, but it’s that shot of adrenaline you didn’t know you needed.

“Blend In With The Weak” is the first track on the album where we get the rhythmic, heavy groove-laden track that the band have made their own over the last few records. A massive headbanger on this track with some superb gang vocals on the chorus that just gets your first pumping. Also featuring a guest, Matt McDougal from Boundaries, turns up the straight edge on the track, his appearance on the bridge of the song gives it a moment of brutality, but the band still keep it heavy on the bouncy riffs & “fun” feeling.

My standout track & favourite on the album is “Sacred Place”. Feeling like what would happen if the members of Meshuggah had a nightmare caught on tape, this chromatic, syncopated hypnotic opening becomes an earworm quickly & Easterling’s most poetic yet scary performance on the album. Gut-wrenching screams with agonising pleas to hear him say “there’s no room left for me..”

Even with the track’s dark, brooding, calming bridge that builds the intensity, bassist Shiloh Krebs & drummer Mike White being so tight & locked in helps the song’s closing breakdown stand out as the band’s most ungodly & punishing to date. This track is phenomenal..

Feeling like one of the biggest tracks the band have written to date, “One Less Body” has this big, grand feel. The opening section with this driving bass lead from Krebs slowly turns up the heavy before the band scream “WHAT THE FUCK..” and on a dime give you that one, two combo to the jaw. But at the halfway mark, the band gives us this ethereal moment that gives the track a nice, diverse moment. This was featured more on the last album, but here it’s used less, which greatly increases the power it has. The track builds to one of the best vocal appearances of the year. Brann Dailor from Mastodon’s gorgeous vocals smoothly ooze over this expansive closing section of the track, giving that truly epic feel. It might be a quick moment, but it leads so well to the closing few sections & gets you ready for the ugly & opposite intention the band has for the end of the track.

“A Door Left Open” is a phenomenal album. Metalcore in 2025 is a very saturated music genre. But a band like Orthodox can firmly stick away from tropes & formulate their sound. It’s the most focused, pissed off & heaveist the band has been to date. Affirming themselves as one of the heaviest bands right now playing this genre & also flying the flag high for straight edge will always be a huge bonus in my eyes.

Review: Joseph Mitchell

A Door Left Open is out via Century Media Records on 6th June 2025

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