ALBUM REVIEW: Final Days – Orden Ogan

Power metal, for all it’s pandering pomp, is often the laughing stock at heavy metal’s state of the union. For a genre that found its footing in Germany in the late eighties; when bands like HELLOWEEN and BLIND GUARDIAN bought their never-ending story-esque worlds to the riff-and-roll, power chord-capers of the IRON MAIDEN and JUDAS PRIEST-led NWOBH; it’s been pushed to the back of the pack for far too long.

Whilst the likes of NIGHTWISH and AVANTASIA have taken their shining symphonic brand of power metal to festival-headlining heights across Europe, it’s still a genre seen as taboo. Over the years though, a number of bands have been battling away to bring power metal back to the forefront of heavy metal’s pecking order. One such band are Germany’s ORDEN OGAN, who’ve spent their time toiling away in the power metal matrix for over two decades perfecting their art and emerging as one of the genre’s most consistent creators. Following their bombastic 2017 breakthrough Gunmen, which saw them travel and tour the world more than they ever had, they return in the midst of a global pandemic with their aptly-titled seventh album, Final Days. 

ORDEN OGAN aren’t strangers to the stripe-earning scene-setting of power metal’s pledge to concept albums; they’ve spun stories of monasteries in the moorlands, weaved a wild west wonderland, and sailed the seven seas with pirates after all. On Final Days, they take their travels to the space-age, crafting a cautionary tale of doomsday scenarios about the rise of artificial intelligence (In The Dawn Of The AI) and the end of the world at the hands of an Armageddon-aping asteroid attack (It Is Over). As technology takes over our lives in a post-pandemic world, their lyrical labyrinths touch a little too close to home whilst still suspending your disbelief and sending you on your way in your own sci-fi adventure.

Final Days‘ concept isn’t nearly as impactful on the thematics as it is their sonic output. Brushing off any risk of reaching one-trick pony status, ORDEN OGAN have opted to strip back their signature epic-metal soundscapes. In its place they inject and imbue their power metal pomp with the dance-rock delinquency of AMARANTHE alongside a new-found penchant for pop-sensitive song structures that scream for stadium nights. Let The Fire Rain owes as much to Holy Diver-era DIO as it does Fear Of The Dark-era IRON MAIDEN with it’s woah-oh sing-alongs whilst the Yiva Eriksson (Brothers Of Metal) featuring Alone In The Dark pits the epic grandiosity of NIGHTWISH with the devilish darkness of EVANESCENCE. Elsewhere on The Dawn Of The AI, synths erupt like craters across the cracks of the track, issuing their tracks with a new-found immediacy. 

It’s safe to say that with great power (metal) comes great responsibility, and the gatekeepers of the heavy metal universe might frown upon some of the frollicking Final Days throws out. Despite the sneers their synthy subversions might stack up, ORDEN OGAN have struck gold in their most daring deviations. The euro-pop explosion of Inferno is as much an ode to CASCADA as it does to BATTLE BEAST, placing themselves firmly at the front for festival anthem of the year. 

ORDEN OGAN are by no means your meat-and-potatoes power metal act, but on Final Days they pull away from the pack and prove once and for all they’re a cut above the rest as they steer the genre’s ship to dizzying new heights. 

Rating: 9/10

Final Days is set for release on March 12th via AFM Records.

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