REVIEW: Ode in Black – Seeds of Chaos

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Ode In Black originally from Kuopio, Finland, released their first EP “Goodbye” in 2014. Now in 2017 the band has released their debut full-length album “Seeds Of Chaos,” which came out early January.

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The first song “Fountain of Grief” sets an energetic start for the melancholic metal five piece. The song is catchy, has some interesting riffs and an easy-to-listen-to, but yet clean solo that flows in naturally with the song. “The Sea In Which We Drown” starts off with a catchy keyboard melody. It is no wonder this song was amongst the singles for this album, already released in summer 2017. The song is really catchy and has a good energy. I could see this song doing well in a live performance, where a crowd would go wild. The rest of the album goes on in a similar way. Personal highlights for me are “Fountain of Grief”, “Seeds of Chaos”, “Lone Wolf” and the last song “Lullaby for the Innocent”, which truly has a natural HIM atmosphere to it.
The overall tone of the album reminds me of Sentenced and HIM. The album is quite upbeat, with the obvious references to two of the biggest Finnish melancholic metal bands. The vocals of Pasi Mäenpää are naturally very beautiful, endearing and the emotion that he puts in the songs with his voice, seems to be sincere. It is easy for bands like this to get lost in the process and sound simply “too melancholic” which makes them sometimes simply bring you down, instead of having you wonder about the songs and captivated for the time of the album. This is not the case with Ode In Black. The album doesn’t come across as melodramatic or even too melancholic. The album offers very interesting parts and references to the lyrics and melodies. The 11 tracks are coherent as a whole and they make a lot of sense together. The songs are catchy, to the point, they are quite simple by themselves, but they will amaze you by the young potential of this band. This is only their debut album, imagine this band within 10 years, we might just have to welcome the next HIM into our midsts.
 
The vocals are overall very good, Pasi Mäenpää has a warm and versatile voice, that sometimes even sounds edgy and is especially beautiful in the lows. There is some room for improvement though, which is my only real remark on the album. The pronunciation of English at some points can be done better, as sometimes a tiny accent seeps through the cracks. This, however, is a very small detail. What is good however about the album and its production is that the songs are easy to follow, I don’t need to have the lyrics next to me, which is definitely a plus and shows that for a debut album the production has been overall a success.

So if you have found yourself in a black hole to what to listen to after HIM‘s farewell and you are not sure if someone is ever going to fill up that emptiness inside of you ever again, give Ode In Black a chance. Prospects are that we are going to hear a lot more of this band in the future.

Line-up

Pasi Mäenpää – Vocals
Iiro Saarinen – Guitars and backing vocals
Juhani Saarinen – Guitars
Ville Puustinen – Bass
Taisto Ristivirta – Drums

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