Idis Örlög appears to be a rather shadowy
project from Northern Europe, of whose precise location is somewhere
around Nuremberg, Germany.  Initially it seemed that the projects
members had been lost to obscurity, but after a little research it would
seem that the lady behind the music is one Megan Löwe, previously of
Boston, Massachusetts.  Some may know her otherwise as “Iron Meggido” of
the black metal duo Witchblood whom have only released one demo to this
point, while others may know her for the black thrash project Hekseri
whom just in 2010 finally got their first chance at a full-length after 6
years of existence with a self-titled effort on Time Before Time
Records.  Thus it would seem that Idis Örlög is Löwe’s first attempt at
invoking her ancestral spirits and personal spirituality and culture
through the means of Pagan Folk music as her world up until this point
has seemingly been placed almost entirely in the extreme metal realm.

Despite coming from and being financed by
the label Wolftyr Productions, this is a demo and should be taken as
such when listening as the quality of the recordings are demo quality. 
There isn’t a great deal of effort put into production seemingly, with
volume levels varying — sometimes greatly — between tracks, performance
slip-ups being left intact, and microphone noise and movement being left
in the mix.  As such though, it should be noted that most of these
tracks, especially towards the end of the demo, appear to have been
performed live into a microphone, so guitar and vocals are being
performed simultaneously rather than separately for recording purposes,
so performance miscues can be attributed to that.  That said, for what
it is, this demo is nicely composed.  For the first part of the release
before the live recordings take place, multiple vocal layers are
melodically performed and are the primary point of the music over top of
the sweeping guitar lines and minimal hand percussion.

Thematically, as mentioned, most of
Löwe’s work is a dedication to her ancestral lineage, spirituality, and
the nature in which she is surrounded by.  Lyrics seem to mostly contain
writings on Nordic and Germanic mythology as can be seen especially in
later tracks like “Huginn and Muninn” — the familiar pair of ravens that
fly through Midgard to bring Odin information — and Nanna and Balder —
the latter of whose death eventually led to Ragnarok and the destruction
of the gods.  The name of the project itself is a testament to Löwe’s
intentions with “Idis” being described as guardian spirits who defend
their bloodlines and “Örlög” simply meaning destiny — a phrase which
spells out how she feels about her place in this world and the next. 
Needless to say, her intentions are honorable and I feel that many women
that find themselves in the Pagan realm will especially find something
beautiful in this release — the performance of the music, however, could
use some work in the end.

For curiosity’s sake, the runic text that arches over the art on the album cover simply says “Idis Orlog”.