Artist:  Orden Ogan
   Title:  Easton Hope
   Label: AFM Records

From the onset these German Melodic Metallers Orden Ogan take no prisoners with their epic metal tales on their new album 'Easton Hope'.  The album is all you would expect from a Melodic Metal band and more, rampaging guitar licks, a thunderous rhythm section and a massive (I mean MASSIVE) vocal presence.

From the opening epic styled intro which leads into the proper album opener ‘Rise and Ruin’, you know that this is going to be, without a doubt, a thunderous success in a genre that has many false prophets declaring they are the new messiah in Metal.  But stand aside all those who have gone before because a new band is in town and their here for the crown.

The album takes up the story of Alister Vale before the bands ‘Vale’ album and takes you on a metal roller-coaster ride that you will never want to end.  This has to be one of the finest slice of Metal to come out of Germany in a long time.

The album get us off to a quite stunning start with ‘Rise To Ruin’.  The track is showered with some quite sublime guitar work and a double kick bonanza, which is capped by the fantastic vocal of Seeb.

The blazing metal continues with the fantastic barrage of metal that is the ‘Nobody Leaves’, one for all the riff lovers this one, as Tobi and Seeb both push the six string to its limits on this one, but again it’s the vocals of Seeb that really shine.

The album continues it’s massive and I mean MASSIVE assault on the senses with the anthemic ‘Goodbye’, before one of my favourites songs off the album the excellent title track ‘Easton Hope’.  A real master-class in pushing the Power Metal envelope further with melody and give a whole new dimension to the European metal sound.

‘Welcome Liberty’ is pure metal gold and angry vocal leads this one, while the powerhouse drumming of Ghnu and the driven bass of Lars make this a metal-heads delight.

The traditional metal fans will love the duo guitar licks and the double kick delights of ‘All These Dark Years’, then it's time to really get the heart pumping with the epic tones of the guitar rich ’Nothing Remains’.  A track that is completed with an excellent choral chorus which gives this one an almost Symphonic Metal feel.

The band reach almost film score production with the haunting ‘Requiem’, again complete with orchestrations, then we get a little pirate metal with what else but ‘We Are Pirates’.  A triumph of metal and folk that you have to listen to to really enjoy.

Track of the album for me has to be ‘The Black Heart’, again it's all out riff-spewn metal from the off.  A real bad-ass track that just thunders on through with military precision taking no prisoners on its way.

The album comes to a close with the very impressive ‘Of Downfall And Decline’.  Very much a powerhouse track with big bass lines and huge drums, matched by licks in spades, a real epic track to round off what will set the band up as one of the real triumphs of 2010.  With the band set to play Wacken later this year, I'm confident the masses will sure take to this band and will make them a household name before the years out.

Tracklisting:

1. Rises And Ruin
2. Nobody Leaves
3. Goodbye
4. Easton Hope
5. Welcome Liberty
6. All Those Dark Years
7. Nothing Remains
8. Requiem
9. We Are Pirates
10. The Black Heart
11. Of Downfall And Decline

                  

 

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