RSS Feed


METAL ORDER
Adventures & Nightmares

Self-released (2022)
Rating: 7.5/10

Some albums you just have to swat away the band name and cover artwork otherwise they entangle you in their cheesiness like thorns. And as I predicted to myself before lending an ear, Metal Order is very much melodic, glossy metal bathed in a sword n’ sorcery light, but I respect it in part.

Yes, there is an overt sense of corniness about this debut album and I don’t think it’s intentional, but there’s also a charm hidden deep within its anthemic layers, mainly through the warm keyboards of Gus Schoerner and the leads of Kalebe Oggioni. The vocals from both Craig Cairns and Jamie Jordan have a rather cosy AOR design to them at times, and this is immediately apparent on the rather steely yet comforting opening glide of ‘Courage Of A Soldier’ which has numerous warm layers to investigate.

This is not progressive metal but there is an intelligence, even if at times there’s that drift towards contemporary Euro-Goth thematics whereby power metal aesthetics are applied and flirt with symphonic measures. However, when done correctly there are some real gems to find here. ‘Steelbrothers’ gives me a feel akin to some of Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s 80s neo-classical Goth simmerings, and that’s not in a guitar sense but just in feel with the soaring vocals and trudging, doom-laden march.

As the album unravels there’s a nice flow and a variety too. ‘The Tempters City’ is one of the record’s niftiest, speediest chimes where the vocals, as exampled on the opening track, are more subtle and airy as opposed to the deeper, meatier tones on ‘Steelbrothers’. Meanwhile, ‘Cthulhu-Rising From The Sea’ simmers with wonderful axe work and the powerhouse vocals soar in majestic fashion as the lyrics reveal themselves like the yellowing pages of an ancient tapestry daubed in tales of ancient lands besieged by hell’s unnameable creatures. And this feel repeats itself again with the dark yet rich clatter of ‘Thunder And Fury’ with its effective keyboards, while ‘Ninja’ – sandwiched between everything else – seems a tad out of place but remains anthemic and Gothic but is no match for the fizzing charge of ‘Now Or Never’, the gloriously majestic ‘Today, We March’ and the closing stirs of ‘Fields Of Betrayal’.

Adventures & Nightmares really does promise exactly what its title suggests, and through all the dripping rafters of cheese there remains that steely, symphonic and yet subtle wonder and, dare I say it, naivety even though these guys have managed to craft a rather melodiously engaging adventure.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share