Orestus Striking a Pose
By Rachel Wick
The Eau Claire based band, Orestus, has four key elements that are needed make a lasting impression on the local and mainstream music scene.
High-energy live shows, talented musicians, the love of music and dedicated fans.
Orestus consists of Mike "Kordo" Kording on vocals and keyboards, Mike "Spicy" Donaldson on rhythm guitar, Michael "Riff" Johnson on lead guitar, Jason "Skwerlz" Ulwelling on bass guitar, Enrico "Chim Chim" Poehls on drums and Rob Zimmerman who has played with ICP and Run DMC on spinning and backup vocals.
Since forming in 2001, they have made a name for themselves on the local music scene in addition to playing several large-scale music festivals. "There's nothing like the feeling of something that you created and no one else told you to do. I put my heart in every song I play," said Rico.
Orestus played its first major show at Milwaukee's Summer Fest in 2002. They earned the slot at the festival, after winning a Battle of the Bands in Eau Claire.
"It makes you never want to look back, you always want to shoot for that goal, playing on that big stage," said Rico.
Riff agrees. "It was probably our best experience."
Orestus also played at IGA Summer Jam last August in Eau Claire, opening for the likes of 3 Doors Down, Shinedown, Trapt and Seether.
"It's awesome playing with bigger bands because we stand on the side and watch what they do and how they get the crowd involved. It's a learning experience. Every show is a learning experience," said Kordo.
Orestus' sound can be described as a morphing of hard rock with hip-hop. Some fans have compared Odrok's intense vocals to Jonathan Davis from Korn.
Although, being lumped into a specific music category is a trap that Orestus is being careful not to fall into.
"The way to describe our music is whatever we want to write at the time is what we're going to write," said Kordo. "We don't really want to fall into a category."
So far Orestus has held strong to one major ideology, they will stay true to their sound.
"We want to do, what we want to do without being a meat puppet of somebody else. That cost is too high," said Spicy.
"We're not going to sellout, we're not going to change. We're just going to keep writing the way we want to write," Kordo agrees.
So far this attitude hasn't seemed to have been a problem. Orestus has a large fan base ranging from teenagers to middle aged adults that pack bars to jump around, enjoy the music and witness the band's commanding stage presence.
"We've been lucky enough so far to have people that dig our sound the way it is, Skwerlz said.
Some of the band's upcoming performances include a show at the Red Sea in Minneapolis on October 15 and at the 324 in La Crosse on October 29.
Orestus will play its annual Halloween show October 30 at Sharky's in Altoona.
"Halloween doesn't get celebrated the way that it should and we like to get a little raucous when that comes around," said Kordo.
Past Halloween shows featured the band streaked with fake blood, pumpkins being smashed by the crowd and the band alike, along with the crowd being sprayed with a mixture of pumpkin guts and fake blood.
In addition to Sharky's, Orestus has performed at other area venues such as the Stones Throw, the House of Rock and Mr. Heavy's.
The band concurs that Mr. Heavy's is one of their favorites.
"The cool thing about our crowds is that even though they will kick the crap out of each other, they will reach their hand down and lift them back up off the floor," said Kordo.
The band expects to release a full-length compact disc in the next few months to follow up the LP In Memory Of, but the actual release date is under wraps.
In Memory Of was released in August of 2003. The LP includes the songs S.O.P., Never, Equilibrium, Otherside, Afraid Of Tomorrow and Time and Again.
"When it comes to our songs, what we write about is basically everything that we've learned along the way," said Kordo.
