Register Forgot login?

© 2002-2024
Encyclopaedia Metallum

Privacy Policy

Ordo Draconis > The Wing & the Burden > Reviews
Ordo Draconis - The Wing & the Burden

impressive orchestral metal cheese - 83%

crazpete, July 2nd, 2004

Fans of dark misanthropic black metal should know from the opening synth strains of the overripe overture of faux-symphonic viedo-game-ish instrumental intro that this is not the band for them. Sadly, as with many talented keyboard-heavy black metal bands, the band gets off to a shaky and predictable start with their intro. Fortunately, it is over within a minute or so.

Once the full breadth of Ordo Draconis’ sound is unleashed, one finds an odd mix of aggressive and dark elements and flowery almost silly tones and embellishments. Lush passages of two-part guitar melody meander among wide but thin-sounding synth arrangements of strings; par for the course on this body work. String arrangements and guitar playing here are of above-average talent and inspiration, and many times become classical and baroque-sounding, as evidenced by the riff starting at 4:25 of their first full song, “The Rite of Catherina de Medicis.” The sound is mostly consistent, a unique blend of Obtained Enslavement, …And Oceans, Sacramentum, and perhaps early Limbonic Art. Many of the riffs here are not the standard dark and evil minor scales considered basic fodder for black metal, instead fully embracing the classical ideas of resolution between minor and major scales, giving a more power metal feel to a sound which is not in any overt way power metal. Two- and three-part counter melodies and complex ascending and descending arpeggiated flourishes are not uncommon, and serve to give this band a musical backbone upon which to heap its heaping helpings of rhapsodic cheese.

Riffs often take on a madcap ‘haunted house’ sound one might also find in the bounding riffs of bands like Tartaros, and tremolo guitar arpeggios cascade along hallways of string and choir arrangements. There is a very specific mood being explored by the band’s sense of melody and harmony, which cannot help but conjure images of castles, dragons, spells, and other things which seem to belong in video games and Frank Frazetta paintings. There are moments of harpsichords, organ solos, nylon-stringed acoustic guitars, samples of ravens, and female vocal passages which help to cement the cheesy AD&D motifs. Despite all this campy spookiness, the songs are enjoyable and bound along with a certain juvenile grace. Drumming here stays on the rumbling faster side, certainly taking a back seat to the expansive keyboards and all their shimmering orchestration and ambiance. Vocals are sometimes sneering, sometimes almost whining snarls.

Ordo Draconis does attempt a cover of an actual classical piece, “Danse Macabre Opus 40” by Saint-Saens, which appears at the end of their eighth track. All the melodies and harmonies are faithfully transferred to metal instruments, and none of the complexities of the orchestration are lost, which is quite a relief to metalheads who enjoy classical music.

Production is one of the large downsides to this album, which while perfectly audible and even well-recorded, has the most thin and unimpressive keyboard sounds one could imagine from a lush symphonic black metal band. It’s a wonder the keyboardist got as good as he did apparently playing on instruments purchased at Radio Shack. Guitar tone is also unnecessarily thin and trebly, but not as immediately lacking in substance as the keys.

Overall this is an enjoyable release for fans of complex symphonic black metal who don’t mind a heavily clichéd mood and thin production.