Black Asylum - Anthem of Order (EP)
The new Anthem of Order EP from Black Asylum is one swish-looking CD. Personally, I often make impromptu CD purchases purely based on how good a CD cover looks, and if I hadn’t been sent a reviewer’s copy of Anthem of Order, it might well be sitting on my desk anyway, packaged as it is in nice soft glossy cardboard with some awesome artwork upon it. Of course, listening to the music of it is usually essential as well, and Black Asylum are no let-down there either…
Black Asylum is a five-piece melodic death metal band from the Central Coast of New South Wales. There are plenty of thrash and groove metal influences in there, but in the prime, it’s fast, heavy melo-death, Australian-style. While I couldn’t find a brilliant amount of information about them on the net, I did find that Anthem of Order is just their second musical offering, after last year’s full-length album, Truths of the Blood. Anthem of Order is a really a great little package.
The music sounds like early In Flames or Soilwork mixed with the darker elements of Deathklok and metalcore influences from I Killed The Prom Queen. Once the music starts, there is plenty in there to hold a listener’s interest. The guitar parts in particular are very creative and sound great. While everything else works together to create atmosphere, the guitars are usually the stars in the spotlight. The songs themselves are pretty varied, making sure that an audience doesn’t get bored after just a few spins.
The production is nice as well, with everything mixed to good levels. While at times the sound is a little raw, this doesn’t really detract from the music, instead just heightening the intensity of the sound. That said, don’t listen to this album if you like passive metal, because if you don’t give your attention to this music and engage with it fully, you probably won’t enjoy it.
Not your spin-while-writing-essays-album, Anthem of Order is one to get you in the mood for something intense. And at a six tracks and twenty-five minutes run-time, a good length for an EP, there really isn’t anything to not like here. If Anthem of Order is on sale at EP prices, then I advise metal fans to snap this one up. A great little surprise package of Australian heavy.
