In black metal circles, Messiah and Manheim may be familiar names, the duo were once the vocalist and drummer for the infamous Mayhem before leaving to focus on different projects. Mayhem? I wonder what happened to them… probably nothing important. In 2013, Manheim and Messiah once again joined forces in Order delivering a full-length debut in 2017 and now, the Norwegians are back with their sophomore album ‘The Gospel’.
This is a band which know how to do raw very well, these are two musicians who were at the forefront of what would become that second wave of black metal, coupled with Anders Odden and Stu Manx on guitars and bass, Order have been battering down the walls of black/death metal, a sound which they continue to scorch the earth with on ‘The Gospel’. Clocking in at under 35 minutes, this is a raw slab of frozen meat and the melding of these two sounds create a wide demographic for extreme fans to get their teeth into. Tracks such as ‘Bringer of Salt’, ‘Lust’ and ‘Tomb’ have all the appeal of Celtic Frost, Darkthrone and even Autopsy as the band show their veteran status of creating decent black/death metal.
‘The Gospel’ is a short fire burst of frantic blast beats and tremolo picking delivered through that tin can production which reminds us exactly why we love this genre in the first place. It won’t do anything for the unconverted. Fuck ‘em, because those who are versed will find a sinister album that they can play over and over again.
