Review: Orden Ogan – Final Days

Band: ORDEN OGAN

Album: Final Days

Genre: Heavy/Power Metal

Duration: 50:34

Release: 12.03.2021 (via AFM Records)

Zur deutschen Version dieser Review geht es hier.

I was given the album in form of a digital download, curtesy of AFM Records. Thanks for that!

The Album can be preordered here.

Dear friends on your internet supporting devices, I’m elated to finally be able to share new content with you!

Covid-19 is still a pressing issue and it doesn’t seem like 2021 will be significantly different from 2020.

This makes me all the more happy to be able to share my thoughts on ORDEN OGAN’s upcoming album Final Days with you!

If you know me, you know that I have been a fan of this group surrounding singer, songwriter and producer SEEB LEVERMANN for years. Especially Gunmen, which is this album’s predecessor, is one of my all-time favorites!

In light of this, I had my expectations concerning this album which is set to be released on March 12th and has had to be postponed a couple of time due to Covid-19.

Setting the stage for this album are the four Singles which were previously released. I find that to be somewhat unusual but this is also nothing that has to be criticized as such.

Heart of the Android was the second single and was released last December. I find this to be a very well-done opener for this album and it also picks up the overlying topic of this album which is the technical apocalypse. You can find everything you love about ORDEN OGAN here: several voice chorus designed to stay in your ear, catchy melodies and energetic guitars. The question „Is there a heart inside of the android?“ reminds me of Commander Data in Star Trek every time… Who know if there are maybe any Star Trek fans in the band?

Second in line is the Song In the Dawn of the AI. This song was released in July last year and is a seriously catchy song. Due to the usage of technical sound effects that remind me of the AOL sign-in sounds (kids, go ahead and google this) the listener is able to stay in this technical doomsday scenario. However, I think it will be difficult to transport this song live and have it feel the same.

Now onto the third song on this album, which is also my absolute favorite: Inferno. There was no reason to go this f(iretr)ucking hard and make this song slap so hard, but i LOOOOOVE!!! that they did it anyway. Inferno is in terms of production, composition, text and general make-up simply the best song on this album!

Song number four is also single number four: Let the Fire Rain. A solid ORDEN OGAN song that starts a bit sluggish but develops into a good, catchy song. But at this point already, you can see what will continue throughout this album: The technical sound effects, that could be found in In the Dawn of the AI, are completely missing. It doesn’t do any harm in terms of quality, but I do pity that in terms of the overall composition of the album. 

Very well-done in this song are the choir voices in the bridge that give the impression of the last people on earth uniting one last time.

I was really excited for the next two songs when they were first announced: Interstellar featuring GUS G. and Alone in the Dark featuring YLVA ERIKSSON.

The first one is more or less saved by the classic ORDEN OGAN style chorus which is very strong and catchy. The solo by GUS G. itself is also very well-made. Other than that, the song is mediocre at best. My biggest issue is the central line of the song: „If you never surrender, you never fall.“ That is just a nonsensical circular statement. Just because you don’t surrender, you don’t automatically not lose… Someone somewhere in history thought like this as well an had a rude awakening. The usage of such a statement as a focal point of the song is seriously disappointing to me. I expected more in terms of songwriting.

Even worse is the fact that Alone in the Dark isn’t much better. I Love YLVA ERIKSSON’s voice and the feelings she is able to convey. Unfortunately the rest of the song can’t deliver that. I really don’t like SEEB’s vocals here. There are lot of effects that were added to his voice which make him sound artificial. In direkt comparison to YLVA ERIKSSON his voice sounds frail.

The melody of the song is just a standard metal ballad that completely misses the ORDEN OGAN characteristics. I’m especially disappointed by this because I had really high expectations for this song knowing what a great songwriter and producer SEEB normally is. Alone in the Dark is one of the weakest songs on this album for me because of this.

The following three songs, Black Hole, Absolution for our Final Days and Hollow, are quite forgettable. All of them have more or less the same-style chorus, are composed similarly and are really lacking the ORDEN OGAN catchiness. In addition, the overlaying topic of the technical apocalypse plays almost no role. There are minor parts, but these songs are not embedded into the topic as the first four songs were. I don’t know what went wrong here during the production process, but if you keep in mind that the album was postponed several times, it has to be said that the additional time wasn’t used to benefit the quality of the songs.

The finale is a song which is almost half of metal ballad: It is over. First of all I have to praise the fact that this is the final song of the album. My inner Monk is really happy about that. Nevertheless, this song is unable to heal the shortcomings of the other songs.

To defend the band’s honor here at least a bit, I have to say that they included the technical apocalypse theme here very well by using a „final broadcast“. This broadcast is really cool and well-done! Although I probably would’ve let the song end after that broadcast.

To draw a conclusion, this album started very promising but was unable to fulfill my expectations to an agreeable extent. I, for one, will listen to the first four songs of the album and will see whatORDEN OGAN deliver on live on stage because this is a whole different issue.

Line-Up:

Seeb Levermann (Vocals)

Nils Löffler (Guitar)

Patrick Sperling (Guitar)

Steven Wussow (Bass)

Dirk Meyer-Berhorn (Drums)