In The Wake Of Collisions is the second studio album from The Arcane Order, and it represents an interesting compromise between extreme metal, death metal and progressive.
The Arcane Order were originally named Scavenger, started by Flemming C. Lund of Autumn Leaves as a side project during the protracted break-up of that band. Autumn Leaves were pioneers of the melodic death metal style, and the songwriting on In The Wake Of Collisions represents Lund travelling further in the same direction.
The arrangements of the songs are the most striking thing about them. The Arcane Order change the pace and feel of their music regularly throughout the course of each tune. From the sinister opening of “Death Is Imminent”, where haunting and sinister keyboards and occult chanting lead into rampaging guitar and the ferocious vocals of Kasper Thomsen, In The Wake Of Collisions shifts styles like a chameleon – different skins covering the same body.
The Arcane Order’s dominant style is quite like the keyboard-rich fury of Strapping Young Lad, complete with screeching vocals, but it’s played off against the throaty roaring and galloping chords of the European death metal style. In The Wake Of Collisions also has more than a smattering of the gothic about it, with the melodies tempering the aggression into something more accessible.
Accessibility doesn’t have to mean compromising your metal credentials or dumbing down the musicianship, though, and The Arcane Order have evidently got some awesome skills on board, even beyond Lund’s experienced songwriting chops. In The Wake Of Collisions is peppered with quick-change chord sequences that give way to spooky arpeggios, and epic solo runs that embellish without overshadowing.
In The Wake Of Collisions also features some of the most diverse drumming I’ve ever heard on an album this heavy - Morten Løwe Sørensen can pull off the traditional full-force percussion barrage, but also demonstrates genuine rhythmic feel and subtlety with intricate rolls and fills, as well as some passages that are close to the complexity of programmed breakbeats.
As might be expected given their name, there’s a distinctly occult feel to The Arcane Order’s material; the keyboard work especially lends an atmosphere of sinister magic and dark ritual that makes a refreshing change from the straight-forward savagery of the death metal scene.
Likewise, The Arcane Order’s progressive songwriting style brings In The Wake Of Collisions to life, making it a heavy but engaging album that will appeal to those who do not usually consider themselves fans of death metal - myself included.
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: death metal, goth, In The Wake Of Collisions, prog, The Arcane Order
