Hailing from France and featuring members of Aosoth and Temple Of Baal, The Order Of Apollyon are, perhaps unsurprisingly, very serious about their occult metal.
While some of the tropes are immediately obvious to the well-trained eye (for example, the band names being reduced to initials – why are so many bands doing that these days?), there is also a definite feel of religious devotion about the music itself.
Indeed, the tight death metal leanings of the songs lend themselves to a sense of discipline, but the genius is that the group manage to weave more evocative and emotional melodies within the rigid confines of the tight riffing and precise percussion. The result is a blackened death metal fusion that brings to mind bands from Behemoth and Mastiphal to Deathspell Omega.
It’s a bit of a slow-burner and its relatively ‘clean’ take on the genre may put off some of their target audience (the production and performance is very much a contemporary affair), but this is still a convincing work./o:p
