Album Review: Orden Ogan - Final Days

While I have been admittedly luke-warm on power metal in recent years, one bright spot that always delivers is Orden Ogan. Some will criticize them for being in the Motorhead or AC/DC camp of always delivering the same album, but that ignores the albums are all good. Some have more lasting appeal than others, but their heavy chugging metal and epic choirs are the most consistent thing going in power metal. I stumbled across them even before they made it to a label, and in all that time they have never failed. Every time Orden Ogan releases a record, you know it's going to be an enjoyable time.

With this album, the band continues their practice of concept record by taking this journey into space. While we have gotten records in the past about burning cities, ice ages, and the wild west, this record is about technology and the vacuum it threatens to push us into.

That theme fits with the band's sound, which has always had a mechanical rhythm to the guitars as the muted notes lock in with the drums. While it may have been a bit harder to buy Orden Ogan as the soundtrack to a black-hat gunfight, they fit right in for a suspense-driven movie in the depths of space. As the album kicks off with "Heart Of The Android", those guitars could stand in for pistons serving as the robotic pump bringing the bot to life. It's a minor detail, but having the subject matter fit in with the band's sound does help cohere everything just that little bit more.

Orden Ogan maintains their status as both one of the heavier power metal bands, but also one of the most epic. When they lock into a thrashing rhythm, like they do during the solo section of "In The Dawn Of The AI", they are unquestionably heavy. Then, when the time comes to switch back to the chorus, the layers of voices behind Seeb expand the scope into something only Blind Guardian compares to. Putting the two elements together is what makes Orden Ogan unique, and they do it as well on this record as they ever have.

We run the gamut, from the rapid-fire delivery of "Interstellar" to the brooding heavy ballad "Alone In The Dark", which allows the band to show they aren't the one-trick pony you might initially think. They are dedicated to their sound and aesthetic, but there are enough nuances within it to give the albums the needed diversity. I'm not sure I quite heard a song that stands out as one of their absolute best, the way I did when "A Reason To Give" jumped out at me from the "Ravenhead" album, but all fifty minutes of this outing are rock solid.

So is this better than their previous album? Where does it sit among their discography? The differences between albums are slight, so really it doesn't matter much where we say it falls. We can have our favorites, and the rest of the albums will not be far behind. The beauty of consistency is not having to think about these things, and Orden Ogan makes that possible. Everything they put out is damn good, and so is "Final Days".