Review by Norbert on May 5, 2026.

I confess—mea culpa. For a long time, I simply couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

My first encounter with the Kraków-based sonic machine known as Dormant Ordeal happened under rather unusual circumstances: in a hotel room in the Owl Mountains, accompanied by a few bottles of local beer. Outside—forest, silence, mountain chill. Inside—through the speakers—a fractured, hyper-technical soundscape crafted by Grzegorz Pajda that felt completely out of sync with the surroundings. Maybe that’s why it didn’t click. Maybe those tangled riffs, precision blast beats, and sterile atmosphere clashed too much with the calm of owls and pine trees.

Either way, I dismissed it. And when friends later described them as “Ulcerate from Kraków,” I nodded politely, but my mind was elsewhere. I only revisited the band recently, prompted by the fact that their fourth album had been released on Willowtip—a label that, over the past year or so, has put out several records that genuinely impressed me.

And yes—Tooth And Nail, Dormant Ordeal’s latest album, impressed me just as much.

After many hours spent with this sonic beast, I now realize this is far more than just another technical death metal curiosity. This is a band that has been patiently and consistently evolving into one of the most compelling acts in the Polish extreme metal scene. It just took me a while to catch up. That’s life.

Their debut, It Rains, It Pours (2013), already made it clear that the Kraków trio had no interest in following the old-school death metal path of bands like Vader. Instead, they embraced a modern, technical approach—something between the precision of Polish acts like Lost Soul, Trauma, or Masachist, and the cold, clinical production associated with Western studios. It’s tight, brutal, and mechanically precise, full of fractured riffs and shifting tempos. The only thing missing is that elusive spark—the hook that compels you to come back obsessively. It’s a record you respect more than you love.
Their second album, We Had It Coming (2016), tells a different story. Here, the architects of chaos truly find their identity. The riffs grow denser, almost concrete-like, the rhythm section hits with crushing weight, and the compositions pull you into a suffocating, claustrophobic space. It’s still technical death metal, but without unnecessary excess—music that can appeal equally to fans of Gorguts and Immolation, as well as those drawn to the groove-heavy force of Suffocation or Hate Eternal. Beneath the surface lies an atmosphere of sickness, paranoia, and obsession—recalling bands like Ulcerate or Embrional, yet filtered through Dormant Ordeal’s own sensibility.

The third album, The Grand Scheme Of Things (2021), released via Selfmadegod Records, is where everything fully crystallizes. It’s a display of both power and creativity, merging technical precision with a dense, almost overwhelming atmosphere. Imagine a collision between Meshuggah and Deathspell Omega—yet more focused, less opaque. The riffs stretch like steel frameworks, dissonance nods toward the French extreme metal scene (Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord), and the overall feel is chilling—like black metal’s coldness fused with Morbid Angel’s weight. It’s hypnotic music, a labyrinth of calculated chaos where it’s easy to lose your bearings.

With their fourth album, Tooth And Nail, the band reaches full maturity. This is 21st-century technical death metal stripped of unnecessary showmanship and driven instead by atmosphere, tension, and emotional weight. Echoes of Deathspell Omega, Gorguts, or even Neurosis appear, but always in a controlled, deliberate way. Nothing feels excessive. Complexity serves a purpose. The riffs, dissonance, and constant tempo shifts are all subordinated to building mood. This is an album you can approach analytically—dissecting it like a geometric structure—or experience purely on an emotional level, letting the sound wash over you and consume everything.

Looking back at their discography, the progression is undeniable: from the precise but somewhat sterile debut, through the cohesive and crushing We Had It Coming, to the ambitious and visionary The Grand Scheme Of Things, and finally to the fully realized Tooth And Nail. This is a band that evolves with each release without ever losing its identity. And I can’t help but think—maybe if I hadn’t first encountered Dormant Ordeal in the mountains, beer in hand, in an environment so mismatched to their sound, I would have appreciated them sooner. But perhaps that delay made the eventual discovery even more powerful.

Because this musical hydra—much like the Owl Mountains themselves—doesn’t reveal everything at once. You have to go deeper, wander through its darker corridors, and let the sound resonate within you. And then, eventually, you realize that this “technical fragmentation” fits the landscape far better than you ever expected.

You just have to learn how to listen.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Review by Adam M on October 23, 2025.

This is a very strong death metal album that has shooken things up recently with its harsh vibe.  There is a somewhat balck metal feeling to the songs as well that recalls the likes of Behemoth and the entire thing is well produced and clearly performed.  Fans of death metal will find something to cherish for some time here.

The musicianship on the album is solid with prominent guitars and pummelling drumming.  There is a somewhat evil aspect to the musicianship that bolsters it great and makes this one of the more powerful death metal albums of recent times and a very powerful experience indeed.  It is both punishing and versatile, making for a solid listen.

If there is a flaw here that would be that the album does not have a distinctive trait like Nile’s material and this leads to being a bit more generic sounding.  It is still strong and essential material that is quite assertive and dynamic in equal measures.

In conclusionant listen.  It will tide over fans of the genre for some time and take its place among elite status of the genre.n, this is an evil death metal album that will appeal to fans of Behemoth as much as it does Ulcerate.  There is very little to dislike about it and it is a very poig

Rating: 7.6 out of 10