Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Orden Ogan
Label: AFM Records
Release: 2015
Running time: 48:28
Rating: 4.5/5
Orden Ogan (roughly »order of fear« in Slovenian) are long-lived power metal devotees from the German town of Arnsberg. They’ll soon be hitting two decades of existence, having formed back in 1996. After the years that have passed since their excellent predecessor »To the End« (2012), they’re back with their fifth full-length, called »Ravenhead«!
On Ravenhead, too, the core of the German quartet’s musical vision is the symphonic stuffed-to-the-brim quality of the arrangements, overflowing with bombast, or pomp theater, while the starting premise is of course bound to following the guidelines of the German power metal school’s legacy. Orden Ogan started dabbling in folk melos as early as their debut »Testimonium A.D.«, released in 2004, and thanks to their neat blend of musically broad components with power metal starting points, symphonic elements and traditional Celtic melos, people even started calling them the younger brothers of Blind Gurardian, which actually makes sense once you spin them in your CD player.
Over the course of their career the band has kept refining this principle, carefully nurturing it and growing from album to album. They’ve defined their own recognizable style. The new album »Ravenhead« continues this nurturing of musical tradition. »Ravenhad«, though, is a notch darker and gloomier than its predecessor! As expected, the band once again hands you a ticket to a fantasy world of Nordic mythology, adorned with the occult, superstition, doom, heroism, cowardice, courage and, of course, mysticism. With all their vast experience and talent, Orden Ogan masterfully fertilize these stories with their composing and arranging virtues. The result is a creation of a special mood that opens the door to a parallel world beyond reality, and it keeps the listener firmly glued to it from the first second to the last! The songs are all craftily seasoned with a gradual build-up of atmosphere, through calm introductory passages followed by an explosion into the lead riff of the verse, which the band, through several transitional motif switches, masterfully carries to a climax in the chorus melodies.
Seeb’s vocals certainly don’t belong in the league of the highest-ranked singers in our solar system. What saves him is a mildly guttural voice that gets its distinctiveness from a nasal twang and so, almost involuntarily, evokes a theatricality that matches the approach of Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian). As for the limits of his vocal delivery, the band once again masks them remarkably boldly and skillfully with multi-part choir harmonies that back Seeb especially in the chorus melodies. The very formatting of the lead melodies, the bombastic theatrical mood, the riffs fertilized with orchestral arrangements and even the added harmonized guitar embellishments in thirds (run through a wah-wah effect), as in the song Evil Lies in Every Man, all stir up quite a bit of kinship with Blind Guardian’s theatricality. At the same time, you can feel the influence of another classic, if not downright legendary, Hamburg band that stirred up the classic German metal scene in the mid-eighties. That’s Running Wild. The lead riffs are often »peppered« with rapid single-string picking and at the same time laid over the accelerated rolling of double bass drum pedals. From the opening Ravenhead, then F.E.V.E.R. , to Here At The End of the World, which comes very close to this too, with the vocal fury of the irritated ripper-uncle Chris Boltendahl, the unchallenged leader of power metal veterans Grave Digger, adding the perfect touch. Celtic forms like to poke out in the middle passages or the intro sections of songs, like the acoustic first part of A Reason to Give, where the comparison with Blind Guardian is once again spot on. Despite a few of these comparisons being thrown around, though, the energy is still their own, and so is the overall stylistic shaping of the songs that defines Orden Ogan’s musical dossier.
Every single song can truly boast an exceptional sense of definition and bears witness to the exceptional compositional maturity of a band that knows how to stay focused on a fully realized musical vision. You’ll have a hard time picking album favorites, because there are no dips in quality between songs! Through exceptional variety of ideas, the band also shows great skill at contrasting its songs. The right makeup, in the right places, in the right arrangements. »Ravenhead« is really an album you can’t fault on anything at all. This year on the European continent has kicked off with a surge of power metal releases. Serious Black have already put out an excellent studio debut, now Orden Ogan have struck with their new album, and soon »Blind Guardian« will join them with a new studio album too, which is already getting rave reviews from music critics. »Ravenhead« is a killer album, then, and hardcore fans of the kind of power metal that only the old European continent can produce in its tradition will grab it with both hands!
Lineup
Sebastian “Seeb” Levermann – vocals, guitar, keyboards
Tobias “Tobi” Kersting – guitar
Niels Löffler – bass guitar
Dirk Meyer-Berhorn – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Chris Boltendahl (Grave Digger) – vocals on track no. 6
Joacim Cans (HammerFall) – vocals on track no. 9
Production
Sebastian “Seeb” Levermann
Tracklist
01. Orden Ogan (01:26)
02. Ravenhead (06:06)
03. F.E.V.E.R (04:24)
04. The Lake (04:16)
05. Evil Lies in Every Man (05:45)
06. Here at the End of the World (05:02)
07. A Reason to Give 04:32
08. Deaf Among the Blind 05:06
09. Sorrow Is Your Tale (05:43)
10. In Grief and Chains (02:13)
11. Too Soon (03:51)
