Vehemency Consisting of members related to Cradle of Filth, Akercocke and Aborted, I didn’t expect to hear this bare deathened black metal on The Order of Apollyon’s debut album The Flesh. And the initial surprise was positive most certainly, but towards the end of the album I’m realizing that The Flesh falls down due to fairly mediocre filler material.

Indeed, taking at least ten minutes away from this 40-minute piece would have helped the album a lot. I’m quite impressed in the beginning when this war machine begins its rampage on the militant rhythms of ”God Speaks”, followed by the rapid strafe of ”Ich Bin Das Licht”. The production is really crispy and tight, a nice contrast to the other Listenable Record’s output this year, the muddy and bassy Fester and Putrefy by Cavus.

Near the middle of the album, my focus starts to wander around and the tight riffage and accurate drumming doesn’t have the same impact anymore. The songs follow another too closely and some variation would have been in place to create a more interesting whole. There’s no question of the member’s technical abilities but it doesn’t take away the fact that these compositions aren’t above the line of mediocrity.

The Flesh isn’t a failure but could have been better. Production-wise and technically everything seems to be okay - after all, these are experienced musicians behind The Order of Apollyon - but something is lacking compositionally. A good production alone doesn’t make a great album. Perhaps their next album will fix that glitch, here’s to hoping. Bonus points for the lyrically interesting theme, however.