The rather innocuous sounding name from this Norwegian band, underestimates the power, ferocity and sheer primitive onslaught they have constructed. Within the ranks the pedigree is there for all to acknowledge, with members coming from acts such as Mayhem and Cadaver, having cut their teeth in the proto-black metal era of the late 1980s when black metal was truly a revelation in extreme music. That sense of raw, primal wrath was cemented with the band’s debut album, ‘Lex Amentiae’, released in 2017, following a demo the previous year. The debut is a caustic nihilistic assault, created by the semi lo-fi sound but compounded by the scathing riff attack.
Every band has to progress and this sophomore sees the song writing take a step into denser realms without any loss of that intrinsic feral onslaught, as the album opens with an intro piece before ‘Rise’ follows. That sharp razoring guitar sound is fully intact, honed to polished perniciousness as the song retains a mid-tempo speed that I wasn’t really expecting on the opener. With riff changes adorning the track, each swerving deviation adds to the urgency and power as ‘Bringer Of Salt’ hacks its way in with a cool riff and catchiness. Being shorter and to the point the virulency scrapes at your body, infecting and infesting every pore as malignancy pours and oozes from ‘It Burns’, accompanied by an increase in speed and fury. The vocals have that grimy, gutter trawling throatiness to them, rancid yet possessing clarity there is utter malevolence permeating through them at all times.
When the band slows things down, as on the title track, there is that pervading sense of menace, a noxious and toxic affront that fans of really old black metal will appreciate, but with a better production of course. After a short interlude ‘Descend’ uses an eerie riff and crawling pace that reeks of blackened doom to some extent, as a fine piercing guitar riff seeps into the song with devastating effectiveness. With vocal snarling opening it, ‘Lust’ gradually intensifies for a rabid slithering and skulking tune, that marries the speed and slowness brilliantly, creating a tune with colossal momentum.
Morosity saturates ‘My pain’, opening with piano and that sense of desolation black metal often has before the detonation in speed. The song has a punk like ethos on the riff, chaotic and punchy the song takes you back 30 years to black metal’s beginnings, leaving ‘Tomb’ to finish the release before an outro. The bass riff and cymbal start to this is great, allowing the song’s spiteful riff to puncture the wall of bass, as the drum work beats remorselessly with little deviation until the huge drop in pace which I always love in extreme metal, as it texturizes the song, and gives it something to build back onto. The noise-based outro sequence, ‘Pneumo II’ (the intro was title ‘Pneumo’) adds to the album’s inhumanity partly due to the diatribe of vocals and the dissonance.
If old school black metal is something you crave then this album by Order is just the ticket, its overarching venom is balanced by songs that weave a tapestry of enshrouding hostility.
(8.5/10 Martin Harris)
Leave a Reply