ALBUM REVIEW: Final Days – Orden Ogan And Friends
If you’re even remotely interested in power metal and haven’t checked out ORDEN OGAN yet, rectify that immediately. Since 2008, the Teutonic five-piece have dished out a constant stream of high-quality albums and established themselves as one of the genre’s leading lights. They write choruses so infectious they could make your limbs turn green and fall off, have riffs beyond counting and some surprisingly chunky mosh parts as well. Like POWERWOLF and SABATON? You will adore these boys. They are utterly brilliant.
And with that slightly over-excited introduction out the way, we should point out that newcomers won’t want to start with this one. Yes, we realise you’ve already scrolled down and seen that impressive eight out of ten score, but this isn’t the best place for ORDEN OGAN rookies. It’s going to have the diehards in throes of ecstasy, but newbies should look elsewhere.
Why? Simple, this isn’t ORDEN OGAN, it’s ORDEN OGAN AND FRIENDS. Final Days is a re-recording of their identically-monikered 2021 album, only with an assortment of guest musicians handling all the vocals. Frontman Sebastian ‘Seeb’ Levermann gives his pipes a rest and a who’s-who of like-minded singers take his place. It’s still brilliant, and the chance to hear guys like Nils Molin (DYNAZTY) or Andy B. Franck (BRAINSTORM) singing for ORDEN OGAN will give genre fans heart palpitations, but it’s a glorified bonus disc rather than a proper album.
Make no mistake though, the original Final Days is ace and this fresh incarnation is too. The songs still hit with incredible force and the majority of them sound terrific. Peavy Wagner (RAGE) lends his macho tones to Heart Of The Android with all the subtlety of an Arctic ice shelf breaking loose, and Let The Fire Rain with Stu Block (ICED EARTH, INTO ETERNITY) is as epic as ever. In The Dawn Of The AI has a breakdown gnarly enough to make hardcore fans do the Christian Bale face, and some of these melodies soar.
Not everything works this time around though. There’s a wealth of talent involved, but a few of the guests just don’t suit the songs. Elina Siirala of LEAVES EYES is unquestionably a great singer, but she’s over-produced here and too shiny for the subject material. The normally charismatic Marc Lopes (ROSS THE BOSS) meanwhile can’t help sounding like he’s taking a break from trying to steal his precious back from the nasty Hobbitses, and his take on Hollow is unusually irritating.
Curiously, the most appealing work comes from singers outside of the power metal sphere. Leif Jensen (DEW SCENTED) stubbornly refuses to do clean vocals and turns Black Hole into a pristine slice of Gothenburgian death metal, while Dennis Diehl puts in a remarkable performance on It Is Over. The ANY GIVEN DAY singer is better known for metalcore, but he holds his own against his more flamboyant contemporaries and the song resonates with emotive depth.
That aside, there’s a brand-new track named December for completists to enjoy, plus an orchestral reworking of Fields Of Sorrow from the Gunmen album. They’re both entertaining and won’t do anything to upset the apple cart, but the guest vocalists are the big selling point for ORDEN OGAN AND FRIENDS. This version of Final Days is just as grand and enthralling as its bigger brother, but if we had to choose, we’d go for the original. This is exceptional, but it was already exceptional back in 2021. So, while it may be unusual to end a glowing review by recommending a different album, we implore you to check out the standard edition of Final Days. Once you’ve played it to death, this one will be waiting.
Rating: 8/10
Final Days is set for release on October 21st via AFM Records.
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