We all love Bolt Thrower. This is an axiom! Even Lee Vickers does, even if he doesn’t know it yet. In the case of multinational death metallers Extermination Order, this fact becomes obvious from the very first glance at the band logo. Yep. That’s right.
The press release is lacking in information about who the actual people involved in this new band are, but it appears that one present (Maik Weichert, guitars) and one ex-Heaven Shall Burn member (Matthias Voigt, drums) are two of the suspects. John Gahlert (also in Fall Of Serenity) is on vocals, Gyða Hrund is on second guitar and the bass player is only presented as “Rocky”. So, we have a bunch of competent musicians, already involved in the extreme metal scene, displaying their love for Bolt Thrower, Unleashed and early Edge Of Sanity throughout the five tracks that comprise their debut EP The Siege Of Ascalon. Another fact to show these guys (and a girl) mean serious business is that the killer cover artwork is provided by Eliran Kantor (Helloween, Kreator, Testament, Satan etc.).
What can we say about the music then? It is exactly what you should expect from what we mentioned so far – crushing mid-tempo groove in the best traditions of The IVth Crusade, with a drumming style really bringing Andy Whale to mind. There are also some nice melodic guitars to be found at the end of An Iron Shroud, which remind of the classic Gothenburg scene, and the vocals are a slight bit more extreme than Willets’ but you get the overall picture. You may wonder what the difference between these guys and Memoriam is and the answer is Extermination Order put an accent on melody, adding more solos and harmonies, while Memoriam introduce much more crust punk influences. Well, the closing track Siege Of Power is doubling on the tempo and maybe bringing to mind the very first Bolt Thrower releases, thus sounding different to the rest, but also brings flavor and variation.
We only have less than 26 minutes of music for now, but this is top quality metal and I am more than curious to see what their first full-length release will bring us. Great stuff.
9/10
The Siege Of Ascalon is out on April 14th and can be ordered from HERE
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