‘The Order of Fear‘ starts on full blast right from the first second of ‘Kings Of The Underworld‘. Orden Ogan weren’t lying when they called this album the hardest they’ve done up to this point. While the riffs and drums are rather edgy, the vocals, particularly in the chorus, still have a strong sing-along feel to them.

The title track of the album is catchy and does feel like a harder version of Orden Ogan, but it also feels oddly familiar, and the lyrics seem just a bit too repetitive for my liking. I do like the slightly scruffy vocals at the end of the song, though.

‘Moon Fire‘ starts with an intro that could just as well be found on an Amorphis album. Lyric wise it’s better than the previous until it reaches the chorus, which I think should usually be the best part of the song as it still needs to work even when it’s repeated for several times, but this one can’t quite hold up to the verses and gets a tad bit boring towards the end of the song.

‘Conquest‘ also starts with an intro that would not surprise me on any Amorphis album, which also recurs closer to the end of the song. During the verses, I’m a bit reminded of Volbeat. But somehow, as strange as a mix between Amorphis, Volbeat and Orden Ogan sounds like, it all works really well together. I don’t think I have anything bad to say about this song.

‘Blind Man‘ seems like a solid piece that doesn’t stand out too much in any way.

‘Prince Of Sorrow‘ has two somewhat separate strings of melodies, one for the guitars and one for the vocals, that keep intertwining and playing with each other. This brings more depth to the song and immediately makes it much more interesting to listen too.

The next song of the Album, ‘Dread Lord‘, almost feels like a chant. It certainly gets you to sing along.

My favourite of the Album is ‘My Worst Enemy‘. Which shouldn’t be too surprising for anybody that knows me. I have always appreciated a well composed, simplistic balled over superfast and technically more challenging songs. In addition, the lyrics just resonate a lot with me, I mean who of us hasn’t felt like their own worst enemy before.

‘Anthem To The Darkside‘ is a bit more over the top in its orchestration, which isn’t too surprising though considering that this song had his origin already in the very early days of Orden Ogans existence. While it does feel clearly different from the rest of the album, it still fits in nicely and not at all out of place.

The spoken piece ‘The Journey Thus Far‘ give, as the title suggest, a recap of the story of the protagonist Allister Vale.

‘The Long Darkness‘ concludes this chapter of the story masterfully. This song is a perfect fit, even though it wasn’t written for this album.

Altogether, ‘The Order Of Fear’ works great together and the concept works well as well. The continues storyline of Allister Vale ties Orden Ogans albums together nicely. Mastering and mixing have yet again been done by Frontman Seeb himself. While none of the tracks stands out particularly much, the album as a whole makes for a really good listen.

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