Oro: Opus Alter

2012 release from the Italian psychedelic sludge purveyors, the second half of their new album Oro. Divided into ten massive movements overall, the two-chapter work is an expansive and multi-faceted exploration of the concept of knowledge and its power: the magical stream controlled by the human mind to gain control of every single particle in the surrounding world. The title itself is Italian for gold, and Oro is the alchemical process to transform human fears into pure essence: into gold. Although Oro's two chapters were released months apart from each other, they must be considered as a single track in which the musical themes and the sounds appear and reappear, mutate and evolve, progressively culminating in Opus Alter's crushing final movement.