Orden Ogan – To The End

Orden Ogan released their fourth full-length album a few months ago, titled To The End. The version to be reviewed here is the LTD Digipak which included two bonus tracks and a DVD – the latter shall be omitted, though it comprised The Things We Believe In video, its "behind the scenes" and Wacken 2010 live show.

In spite of the positive first impression (which began with the first single releases), the album turned out to be difficult to get a good grasp of. It sounds like Orden Ogan immediately, but it had to be played through several times in order to fully get into each individual song.

The album begins with an instrumental track The Frozen Few, which has some nice and simple guitars with a growing orchestral feeling, something which sounds very peculiar to Ogan. The opening leads to the title track To The End, which is catchy enough to be placed at the beginning, to introduce those choirs which are very typical of Orden Ogan.

Most songs on the album are strong power metal pieces, with some pleasant and occasionally fast guitars and—as already stated—some pompous choirs. Such vocals have been included in every track on the album, more—like in Till The Stars Cry Out with several different repeated sections with choirs—or less, like in the first ballad The Ice Kings, in which the chorus parts are relatively peaceful, less bombastic, with a nice and slightly swinging melody. Orden Ogan's habit to use choirs to such extent may be a bit debatable – on one hand it is like a trademark, sort of a vocal way of adding "power" to "metal", yet on the other hand it may become a burden as well, making one wonder what else could have been used to produce such powerful songs. Fortunately, the choirs have been used in varying ways, like at the very end of The Ice Kings, or in Dying Paradise, where they only repeat the name of the song every now and then.

The regular edition ends with the other ballad, Take This Light, which is very beautiful and comprises piano melodies recorded at the cathedral of Wildeshausen. On the limited edition, this song is followed by the bonus tracks, an original Ogan track Masks and a cover version of The Battle of Waterloo (originally by Running Wild). These are actually some of the most interesting tracks, and personally I would certainly have included Masks in the regular edition. The cover song is a respectful gesture towards Running Wild, carried out in the familiar Ogan way.

Even though the album consists of creative and strong tracks with variable sections, it still hasn't hit the goal of being nearly perfect. On one hand the album is very solid, consistent and harmonious, and on the other hand the tracks do, in spite of their versatility, sound rather similar to each other. Yet that is their style, something that defines Orden Ogan, but it would be refreshing to get to hear something slightly different, something to prove they are not confined to the elements which all the tracks share, maybe only one exceptional song to break the habit. Ogan's song melodies are interesting in their own right, but the decorations are usually the same. Perhaps an acoustic folk version of Mystic Symphony?

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