Final Days – The Sci-Fi Metal Escape

The moment Orden Ogan announced they were releasing a new album and it was going to be all sci-fi, I was super excited and ended up waiting a whole year for it to be released due to delays. It finally arrived in my hands yesterday and right on time! AFM is more punctual than I thought. Normally whenever I order albums from record labels abroad, they take a little longer to arrive.

Thankfully, the wait was totally worth it and the band kept my heart happy during that wait by releasing four singles! FOUR, it makes me so happy to see a band that cares deeply about their fans near and far by giving us extras like these, especially when we have to wait longer than planned for something new.

But enough of that, I’ve been waiting for this album forever and now I’m going to share my thoughts. If I push myself to do these album reviews, it might just become a regular thing like video games!

Heart of the Android

I didn’t think this would work as an intro but it surprisingly does! It sounds so emotional and makes me think of characters like Data and Bishop, or any character from a TV show that is an android. They all have a desire to be more human. The chorus of the song says it perfectly: “What do you see, machine or man?” Oof, beautiful, it just works perfectly. It’s a song you want to sing and I admire it’s purity. Yes that was completely necessary.

In the Dawn of the AI

The first single and oh my fucking God ever since I heard this song for the first time and watched its accompanying music video, I’ve been obsessed with it. In fact, in love with it to a point where I am listening to it in my room singing and pretending to strike lightning from my palms like Seeb as I belt out “FIIIRE IN THE SKY!!”. That’s how much I love it. I love the riff, I love the lyrics, I love the melody, what more can I say? It’s perfect like the first songs I heard when I was still new to the band. It’s like, we create an AI and it takes over the world and it doesn’t take long until the Reapers come! Sometimes I do think of that when I listen to this song. My absolute favorite always.

Inferno

This is the song we all need right now to vent our frustration over the human race. Isn’t an alien invasion preferable to a pandemic where we can’t do anything we want to do anymore? Yeah, I think so. It’s catchy and makes me feel like I’m playing DOOM again blasting demons into oblivion just like the band is annihilating the victims who got to be in the music video! I think this is my second favorite track, it makes me want to headbang, HARD, and I will be singing it as soon as I memorize the chorus.

Let the Fire Rain

Another song about fire! Damn the guys really are letting me escape reality with this album by making songs about invasions and the apocalypse. The REAL apocalypse! Now, I needed to let this one grow on me a little but it’s growing fast and it has a great riff and chorus even if it’s slower than its predecessor. If the songs on this album were to tell a story and be in a different order to do so, this one would take place in the part before the UFO arrives and Inferno begins. Simply melodic.

Interstellar

I’ve noticed a lot of people like this one already, it’s definitely not what I expected it to be. I personally was hoping for something that made me feel like I was traveling in a spaceship, but it sounded more like a melody that would make you picture the preparations taken to go into space. No matter, it’s a decent song and I need to listen to it a few more times. But they’re keeping the sci-fi theme going and I’m glad it’s kept my ears open.

Alone in the Dark

This one sounds beautiful and we have some additional vocals on this one. It gets emotional at times and Seeb is known for throwing in one or two songs in the albums that are meant to be romantic in a way. This is like the interspecies love where the beings live across the galaxy, like a Mass Effect romance, so to speak. It’s definitely nice and melodic, albeit not perfect or ear-grabbing to me.

Black Hole

I never thought I was going to enjoy this song because it didn’t grab me right away but by the time I got halfway into it, it latched itself onto me and pulled me into the void, just like a real black hole! It makes me remember the fascination I had with them when I was younger before I saw creepy images in those space books of astronauts being stretched apart upon being pulled into one! It wasn’t until I started playing more video games did I stop having those nightmares and this song brings me good memories of the love I still have for outer space, with the stars and black holes still being my favorite. Very fast-paced song but I love it.

Absolution for our Final Days

Does this count as the titular track? Maybe it does and it’s another song that surprised me and it has that appeal to it like I want to sing along. It may not be as good as the title track from the last album but it still sounds great! I mean, how can I describe it? It’s like praying for an end of something that is causing chaos and not to mention it’s catchier than I thought. It starts off slow and as soon as soon as the riff kicks in, I was like yep I love this one now.

Hollow

Another song with a darker tone and I think this one is actually darker than Black Hole albeit not as fast. It does sound similar in another way. It’s got a great solo and it’s like listening To The End all over again, it truly packs a punch that’s for sure even if it ends on what I call a surprise note. I will definitely be listening to it more.

It Is Over

Oh all the feels, can we please just belt this one out in unison when this damn virus has been eradicated? I’m still wishing upon stars for it to turn into a Cacodemon so we can blow it up easily. This is definitely the most emotional song on the entire album that makes you want to think about life and all the tragedies in the world when they finally come to an end. All things do, and this will too. It’s a closing track that fits the album like a glove, even if the verses of it lack creativity.

So what are my final thoughts, more than half of the songs are fantastic including some that I listened to and loved more than I thought aside from my favorites out of the singles that came before. It’s an album that allows me to escape reality by imagining myself in a starship of my own or in any of my favorite sci-fi universes and if a band’s album can do that then I love it. Most of the riffs and solos are great, full of catchy melodies, one ballad here, then into some more typical Orden Ogan songs there, all with some cool effects to the vocals as well that I heard on some tracks.

It’s an album that begins strong. Some songs had their flaws but those flaws were so small that it couldn’t make me lower my final grade. Each of them are special in their own way, even if some of them I don’t love at first listen, but that still what makes it good!

Favorite songs:

1. Heart of the Android

2. In the Dawn of the AI

3. Inferno

4. Let the Fire Rain

5. Black Hole

6. Absolution for our Final Days

7. Hollow

Well done, totally worth the wait.