CD Review: Order Of Ennead

Order Of Ennead is the resurrection of Council of the fallen, consisting of Kevin Quirion (ex-Council Of The Fallen) on Guitar and vocals, Scott Patrick (ex-Resurrection) on bass, John Li taking care of lead guitars and Steve Asheim (Deicide) on drums. Some will expect this to be as brutal as Deicide, as I did, but you will pleasently surprised.

If you can step aside from the Deicide link here you will find an album that can stand on its two feet. Okay most folk will pick it up due to the drum stool being filled by the legendary Steve Asheim. His brutal skills feature to some degree here, but he shows thats not all he can do.

Playing a perfectly crafted and modern take on Extreme metal (comprising elements of death metal, black metal and a splash of Thrash shredding), Order Of Ennead stand out from the crowd of new bands on the scene. For a start the guitar work would make most young thrash pretenders and old school fretmeisters sit up and pay attention. They also use lyrics that not many death metal bands would use. As they say on their myspace their lyrical content "explores existence, abolishment of negativity and that which makes up the self."; Not standard death metal lyrics. Lyrics which are delivered in a coherent, if a little Dani filth-esqu way.

Standout tracks for me are "Introspection And The Loss Of Denial"; Vocally lead with superb fret work by John Li. At the age of 19, he is showing fretwork here that could have easily been played by some of the guitar greats 20 years his senior. "As If A Rose I Wither" is a perfectly crafted guitar driven track which also showcases Asheims brutal drumming at its best (on this album).

If you are looking at Order Of Ennead as quick fix in between Deicide albums then you will be sadly dissapointed. The vocals are cleaner, the guitars are a lot more melodic and its not ALL brutal blast beats from start to finish.

For a debut this is great.(8/10)

The track Culling can be heard here. Another fine example of that these guys have on offer.

Due for release on Earache In Europe on October 13th and In the US on the 28th.

Order Of Ennead: http://www.myspace.com/orderofennead
Earache: http://www.earache.com/