Orden Ogan - Ravenhead

Published January 18 2015

*=Staff's pick	Orden Ogan Ravenhead* F.E.V.E.R The Lake* Evil Lies In Every Man Here At The End Of The World A Reason To Give Deaf Among The Blind* Sorrow Is Your Tale In Grief And Chains* Too Soon

Genre	Power Metal	Seeb Levermann	Vocals
Tracks	11	Seeb Levermann	Guitar
Running time	48 Min.	Tobin Kersting	Guitar
Label	AFM Records	Niels Löffler	Bass
Release	16 January 2015	Dirk Mever-Berhorn	Drums
Country	Germany	Seeb Levermann	Keyboard
Producer	Seeb Levermann
Similar artists	---

Orden Ogan really caught my full attention with its last record, To The End, to which I handed out 9 chalices in the end. I know that there were a lot of other people that ended up on the same wavelength as I did and I was really excited beforehand to see if the band would preserve its fine result with this new effort. With Ravenhead, the band doesn't really hit quite as stunningly hard, precise and massive in terms of songwriting again. Nevertheless, the song material is still very catchy and consistently great all throughout the record, although it doesn't explode with such strikingly hard strength this time around.

The music which is offered sounds very familiar to the band's past work, which basically means a pretty fast and an immensely bombastic mix of power metal and folk metal, as well as rich and full-flavored choruses to fill the last spaces to the brim. With its push forward style and its bold and atmospheric attitude, Orden Ogan really has the ability to keep the songs alive all through and is also able to maintain a positive aura during each song. The songs rarely lose their intensity and their energetic appearance, unless the band naturally chooses so, like for instance on the occasions when the guest singers Joacim Cans of HammerFall and Chris Boltendahl of Grave Digger get room for a few vocal lines.

This record is definitely an awesome effort at the end of the day, yet not really a killing and mind-blowing experience, as I try to not get too carried away. Of course I wanted another masterpiece, similar in greatness to its predecessor, but in all honesty, I wasn't really expecting it to turn out that great again, although this piece isn't far from making it to that level nevertheless. Personally I feel that these Germans should at least be one step further up the stairs within this type of music than what they in fact are at this point, because they certainly have earned it and the music that they come out with is really captivating with great attractive force.

See also review of: Gunmen , To The End , Testimonium A.D.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	5	7	7	8

Summary
8 chalices of 10 - Tobbe