Label: Reigning Phoenix Music
Date: July 5th, 2024
The year is 2021. I am really a newborn in the world of journalism, reviews and reports. My biggest fear is not to be wrong about basic information about the band and of course if the review is bad what will the band say? Quite cute, right…Ah,those days.
In my list for review that month is the long awaited album “Final Days” by some German heavy/power metal band Orden Ogan. Never heard of them and I wasn’t interested after what I saw. First thing that I couldn’t stand was the cover art of some robot with a hat. The first thought on my mind was: “Oh no another metalcore band, I really can’t do this”. I didn’t even give an effort after one song to listen to the entire album and God knows what I did with the album on my phone and the review. I was wrong of course not just with the band and album but with the entire genre. Orden Ogan followed me till this day and made me regret that. I think they cursed me really badly.
Anyway, here I am three years later, stunned by this band that I can’t stop listening to and I took back every bad word. Well, in the meantime they became very popular, their heavy metal notes were heard really far away. Their appearance on many great musical festivals like Rockstadt in Romania, Hellfest in France or future in Alcatraz in Belgium were really impressive. They shared the stage with such big names so we could say they are on a good path to become leaders of the genre. Their seventh album called “Order of Fear” is out and I couldn’t be more surprised how much I liked it. I am more into extreme metal but sometimes I need to reset to the original settings. This fusion of heavy/power metal hit me really well. “Kings of the Underworld” opened the album and the song didn’t spear my ears from the first to the last second. Power of the album is based on this song and it’s just spreading to the end more and more. Many metalheads, especially people who are more into extreme metal, forgot how creative this genre is and every time I listen to some album it’s like my first time and reminds me why I listen to this music all these years. The same thing is with “The Order of Fear” as an album and especially a song with the same name. Every song has its own vibe and soul. Album has an authentic style but every song has its own purpose. Songs like “Anthem to the Darkness” or “Moonfire” or “Prince of Sorrow” have a special emotion that wake up the warrior power of your ancestors. Blind Guardian moments in “Blind Man” or the vibe of Nightwish in many songs with chorus and melodic solos really hit my soul. To be clear this is way different from the old school of power metal but Orden Ogan really put in a big effort to make it creative and really powerful. Maybe those choruses are sometimes too much or there are even many melodic moments but when you get into these songs it just fits right in place. Nothing would be this good if there weren’t vocals of mister Sebastian Seeb Levermann… His voice in combination with music really gives a perfect album. A topnotch vocal of the genre mister Levermann is truly the core of the band.
Now, a history lesson, their albums actually follow the same person, Alister Vale… I ain’t gonna tell what really is going on here but this is like a novel that has many parts or a scenario for a series of all seven seasons. It’s not Game of Thrones but has potential to become. Interesting story that touches the past and many philosophical questions. This is something I just love in power metal – stories like fairy tales with logical and important messages.
So, please don’t curse me like Alister Vale to wonder because of my bad first touch with Orden Ogan’s work. This album was a masterpiece that deserved much attention. Welcome to the “Order of Fear”, just knock on their door.
