Belgium is one of the few European countries that does not have a band
that gains some level of praise from the undergound metal following.
Ordeal tries to be the first, but in the end, they fall short.
There is not much to truthfully say about Ordeal's new album
Atrocities, but I will give it a try. The music is mid-tempo death metal, if
there is indeed such a thing. The band does fairly well in executing this
style of play, but without anything spectacular to catch the listener's
attention, Ordeal can be considered nothing more than just another
death metal band. The vocals are not as bad as Chris Barnes from Six Feet
Under, but they certainly can stand to do better because it seems that
the passion just isn't there. The same can be said for the guitar
solos in the songs, which seem either half-hearted or terribly out of
place. There are twelve tracks with names, but on the CD player, it will
read thirteen tracks. That is because the last track is an instrumental
with audio clips from among others, Martin Luther King? Strange as it
sounds, the track is just more filler for an album loaded with nothing
but filler.
I am not going to lie and pretend I actually stayed awake through the
album. In fact, there was not very much Ordeal did that had any sense
of passion. That is not to say the effort was not there, but it takes
effort and passion to make a band work. Ordeal may want to show some
emotion before recording another album.
