ORDO DRACONIS

There has been quite a development in style and sound since the debut album "The Wing & the Burden (2001)", which was more of a straight symphonic black metal album. The style on "Camera Obscura Pt. 1: The Star Chamber Reviews" is much more experimental in nature and can even be labelled avant garde at times. The basis is still symphonic black metal but with a lot of twists and turns. There's a kind of circus/cabaret music sound to the music at times. It's greatly dramatic/theatrical too. The album is a concept album and all songs seque into each other. The music features both raspy black metal type vocals, clean vocals and spoken word sections as well as grand operatic choirs. In addition to the regular metal instrumentation, the music also features strings and piano, which provides the album with an occasional classical edge. It's safe to say that "Camera Obscura Pt. 1: The Star Chamber Reviews" is a very ambitious release.

...while Ordo Draconis succeed in writing intriguing and entertaining music, the sound production unfortunately leaves quite a bit to be desired. The guitars sound pretty weak, the bass sound is flat and the drums feature a rather powerless sound. Especially the sound on the bass drum lacks power. Still this is a varied and entertaining album and I'd say a 3.5 star (70%) rating isn't all wrong.

The music on the album is a kind of experimental symphonic black metal. A band like Dimmu Borgir comes to mind several times through the album's playing time but as mentioned Ordo Draconis experiment a bit more. The music is epic, keyboard/ synth heavy and greatly influenced by classical music. The musicianship is good and especially the keyboard player stands out as really skilled. The sounds he choses are a bit too plastique to my ears but fans of the style probably won't be disappointed. The raspy vocals on the other hand become annoying already shortly into the first song. They are processed in a really weird fashion which makes them sound powerless and without punch. Kind of like if my out of breath grandma tried to sing in black metal style.

The production is not very powerful. It lacks punch and it's like there's something wrong with the volumes in the mix. The keyboard sometimes seems disjointed from the rest of the instruments in the soundscape. It's not a disaster and I'm able to enjoy the album without focusing too much on the sound quality but it's not something that's a plus in my book.

The Wing & the Burden is a decent debut album by Ordo Draconis and if you are a sucker for the symphonic keyboard driven black metal style, maybe this is an album that will please you. I've heard much better but still a 2.5 - 3 star rating is deserved.