Rating:
9.3 |
Ordinance - Internal Monologues
26 July 2011
01. Seldom Thought
02. Opposition
03. Repress
04. Desensitizing Process
05. V
06. Internal Monologues
07. How The Biased Live
08. Singular Perspective
09. Struggling With The Inevitable
10. Circular Logic
11. This Theory; Repeating
12. Fear Of Discovery [Demo] [bonus]
When progressive death metal is brought up for discussion, two notable names immediately spring to mind, Cynic and Opeth. The former hurled an unprecedented outburst of jazzy drones and complex arrangements of high quality technical death metal upon the globe's dark corners while the latter heisted the minds of thousands of metal addicts with gripping blasts of excruciating progressive-drizzled ripples leaping over scintillating grazes of soul-crushing death. Am I being irrational or perhaps delusional? Am I actually trying to find a connection between these two beasts and Ordinance? Well, hell yeah!
Ordinance, with their debut Internal Monologues, have sired a record bridging Opeth's Deliverance's cut-throat guitars and intense drum work to Cynic's Focus's intricate technical approach with shades of Necrophagist's Onset of Putrefaction's brisk and complex rhythmical intensity, all groaning over killer plowing solos, meteoric riffs, fierce machine gun double bass pelts and scything melodic leads in the vein of Mors Principium Est.
The album starts with a portentous one-minute long prologue instrumental for the most part with a storytelling sough at the end uttering, "people should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people," perching as a war signal to unleash the madness that awaits in "Opposition" and continues ceaselessly throughout the entire scorcher. The tracks are genuinely connected, well-balanced, highly technical and furiously fast. The drumming is simply flawless, very precise and unwavering. Mike Semesky's growls have got to be the best over the last decade and arguably in the top ten of all-time in the progressive/death territory. They are very powerful, strident and uplifting, and cope perfectly with the other instruments including the guitars, which by the way are nothing less than impeccable. Greg Macklin and Gunter Ostendorp seem to have reached another level of guitar-burning shredding; "How The Biased Live" and "Desensitizing Process" are testimony to their glittering proficiency. The record is well-produced, the sound is crystal clear and the only weak spot that I could find in it was Mike's clean vocals because, as opposed to his growls, they aren't that consistent and have a tendency to swerve towards whispers rather than clean vocals. I wouldn't go as far as flagging them as "flaws" though, they are still pretty catchy. But aside from that, this record is insanely sick!!
I'm not going to finish this review with a florid epilogue, nor am I going to wrap it up by simply saying that this is probably the best progressive technical death record over the last decade and probably for many years to come. I'm just going to say this: Don't even dare to call yourself a metalhead until you have listened to this monster. |
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| Huh? This isn't even on MA... |
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Written by strade on 11.08.2011 at 18:34
Huh? This isn't even on MA...
Yeah, You're totally right. It's really sad though, I was really shocked to see that this band was still relatively unknown to the scene. I hope they'll get the exposure they truly deserve because Internal Monologues is simply outstanding. |
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 Blizk - 11.08.2011 at 20:53
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| Their drummer is Alex Rudinger from the Canadian melodic death metal band Threat Signal. |
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| Sweet as. Anyone know of anywhere I can buy a hard copy of this? |
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Written by Benneth on 12.08.2011 at 00:59
Sweet as. Anyone know of anywhere I can buy a hard copy of this?
From the band directly: ordinanceofficial@gmail.com |
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| Nothing more than The Faceless rip off... |
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| Man I am so happy to see these guys finally got their album together. I found these dudes when I happened upon Rudy's youtube page like a year or 2 ago and was constantly checking back on them but had to go without internet for almost a year and completely forgot about these guys. Rudy is one sick ass drummer and he was the big draw for me to these guys. I can't wait to get this album. It's been so long since I heard them I don't even remember what they sound like just that Rudy was a fucking beast on the kit... |
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Holy shit I want....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFHJnqlXZ40 |
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| Seriously, this band is so good. So good. I'm getting this a.s.a.p. |
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Ordered.  |
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| I like it, but the production could be better. The drums sound like my old cellphone buttons. |
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Written by Enemy of Reality on 12.08.2011 at 21:34
The drums sound like my old cellphone buttons.
Can I buy your old cell phone please?  |
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Written by Mindheist on 12.08.2011 at 21:52
Written by Enemy of Reality on 12.08.2011 at 21:34
The drums sound like my old cellphone buttons.
Can I buy your old cell phone please?
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| My friend produced these guys, mind blowing stuff here! Highly recommend the album. |
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K†ulu - 15.08.2011 at 18:11
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| I am so not a metalhead... |
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| I've become a huge fan of these guys after reading this review. So much incredible work on a debut album. Excellent music. I recommend it. |
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Written by The_Apostate on 27.08.2011 at 20:06
I've become a huge fan of these guys after reading this review. So much incredible work on a debut album. Excellent music. I recommend it.
I'm really glad you liked it  . Indeed, they are really impressive. |
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qlacs - 22.09.2011 at 16:48
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Hmm, not that good IMO. An improved version of The Faceless. These kind of clean vocals makes me confusing, "am I listening to some metalcore or what?" kind of shit. Those slow melodic parts doesn't fits sometimes. And despite the technical stuff whole album seems to be a bit generic. 7/10 at maximum for me.
Funny you mentioned Cynic, there's hardly anything in this that compares with Focus. Sorry. |
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Written by qlacs on 22.09.2011 at 16:48
Funny you mentioned Cynic, there's hardly anything in this that compares with Focus. Sorry.
The clean vocal effects are similar. Not much other than that I suppose. |
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