Orden Ogan: The Things We Believe In

I'm not an avid music video fan to begin with: while some of them are truly interesting and worth watching, most of them are simply too boring to appeal to me. I am rarely excited about new music video releases, but I encountered an exception on Monday: Orden Ogan released a video to their new single The Things We Believe In off of their new album which is to see the light at the end of October (or should I say, to see the darkness). Well, at least yours truly has been looking forward to the said album!

And yes, on Monday I found myself truly excited to see a new music video. Orden Ogan's We Are Pirates is probably the best music video I know – well yes, I am slightly biased because of pirates, but it is really interesting in its own right. Since the song is relatively long, the video is almost like a short movie with a lot of fascinating events. Now that Orden Ogan released something new, I didn't expect the theme to be so dear to me anymore, but I was looking forward to seeing another good quality music video anyway.

My first impression in brief: snow, ice, cold. Homeless people, miserable people, people in serious trouble. Musicians resurrecting those who didn't quite make it. Hm, I think I've seen this all before. But the song was good.

My second impression: strange tubes. Is that an oxygen mask? What's with that city in an apocalyptic state? Seeb, what are you wearing, cyberpunk gear? What's with that oxygen mask guy's gun, does it shoot laser rays? Who's that guy with a top hat and a torch? What, a strange portal to another dimension? Seeb, why are you glowing, are you sure you are alright?

But the song is good. It sounds just like Orden Ogan, with pompous choirs supporting the chorus. The song didn't quite blow my brains onto the wall, but it was enough to make my nose bleed and make me wait for the album. I guess the video wasn't so bad either... It's full of clichés and unoriginal ideas, but the strange additions make it seem peculiar enough to be worth watching again. The story remained vague to me, but then again... the song was good. And visually the video was fascinating enough, yet I tend to support music videos with strong storylines.

How about you see and hear for yourself?

LIVE: Ensiferum, support: Brymir, A.R.G September 6th

At the end of August Ensiferum released a new album, Unsung Heroes, and consequently toured in Finland with Brymir and A.R.G. In spite of the tour hitting Tampere on a Thursday night, the venue had pulled in relatively big crowds of metalheads.

The evening kicked off with a show from Brymir. Brymir play very distinguishable pagan/folk/melodic death metal akin to Ensiferum, and apparently they were originally called Lai Lai Hei – a song by Ensiferum indeed.

Brymir's approximately 35 mins long show was so good that I spent my merchandise money for the night solely on them. I would even go as far as to say Brymir's show was the best of the night. I wasn't familiar with their material before, but I'm getting into it now. They have one full-length album at the time of writing this called Breathe Fire to the Sun.

A.R.G. performed after Brymir, and where Brymir were full of surprises, A.R.G. were full of disappointments. Their oldschool thrash metal just didn't strike out to me, and I resorted to watching parts of the gig from afar (Ensiferum pun intended) enjoying my beer. After a few songs I'd seen and heard enough -- unfortunately, for I was hoping to enjoy a decent thrash metal gig, especially from a band so cult in the Finnish thrash metal scene. Alas, no dice this time. After A.R.G. finished, it was getting time for Ensiferum. -dw_

Yours truly had contradictory feelings about the upcoming gig: on one hand Ensiferum have made plenty of songs which sound fierce when played live, on the other hand none of the new songs had exactly made such a strong impression beforehand. Being more into their older material, my song wishes comprised those from their self-titled album.

Not that the new album wouldn't have any songs with great live potential; In My Sword I Trust at the beginning works fine to set the audience on fire and get them engaged. The song works better live than it does on an album, being an easy singroar-along catch with its simple chorus.

Not every song from Unsung Heroes does have the same live potential. While Pohjola may be quite an epic track in its own right, it's merely an awkward addition to a setlist. Vesa-Matti Loiri's deep voice heard on playback seems out of place when a bunch of metalheads are either concentrating on their pints of beer or eagerly waiting for the next moshpit. (Speaking of which, even moshpits quickly suffer from inflation if your encourage people to do it too often.)

All in all, each of their albums was presented with more than one song, yet the selection could have been better. It was to be expected that their newest album would get the most attention, but many particularly good live songs were omitted. Studies show that Into Battle or Stone Cold Metal haven't been on the summer festival setlists either, which is a great pity. The lack of Treacherous Gods left me quite disappointed as well, yet it could be excused with Battle Song, which was, along with another gem from the first album, Hero in a Dream, the best part of the gig.

The most enjoyable thing about Ensiferum's gigs, however, is the fact that the band really seem to be enjoying what they are doing. They are having fun on the stage, they're showing it, and they're spreading that mood into the audience as well. -cm_

Mad Hatter's Den – Dark Wheel EP

Mad Hatter's Den, who in all likelihood owe their name to the tales of certain Alice, are a quintet from the Pirkanmaa region of Finland. The group has previously gained fame as one of the more prominent Finnish Iron Maiden coverbands called Coverslaves. The MCD, dubbed Dark Wheel, is the band's first published record, although they have been somewhat active on live stages prior to the release of Dark Wheel, most often "warming up" for their more established Coverslaves act.

Dark Wheel is a prestigious and polished release for a debut CD. Taage Laiho of Kilpi/Ghost Machinery fame has lent his voice to all songs on the album but is apparently not a permanent member according to the website. The lyrics were contributed by Erkki Seppänen (Dreamtale, Ку́рск, Coverslaves) for all tracks apart from track 5, the lyrics of which were written by Pekka Snellman (Coverslaves). All compositions have been handled by the band's guitarist and leading character Jaakko Hänninen. The musicianship presented throughout the album is on a professional level both in terms of sound and handling of instruments: these guys have definitely played together before. The biggest gripe ironically is the person with the greatest experience, i.e. Taage, but not to the point where it would become distractingly obvious; however, at certain points he sings a little too high and it doesn't sound very good (portions of Drain the Fountain spring to mind).

Iron Maiden are a clear influence here with the twin guitar harmonies and the trademarkedly galloping to an extent, followed up by some more generic straight-forward melodic heavy metal lines and a sweet scent of power metal. Add 70s-80s synth sounds in the mixture and we've arrived at Dark Wheel. In fact, if Iron Maiden + Kilpi (and perhaps Altaria) were combined, this is what it would probably sound like.

Dark Wheel is not reinventing the wheel by any means, but it is a strong show from Mad Hatter's Den and leaves a promising trail to follow up to what hopefully one day will be a full album release.

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