review: Profane Order

Profane Order

Slave Morality

Sentient Ruin/Krucyator Productions/Les Fleurs du Mal Productions

October 18 2019

Sound: Canada’s Profane Order is socially irredeemable barbaric extreme metal made to sound as bestial as possible, with a shock rock approach that only the die-hard raw extreme metal audiences will be able to stomach.

Production: Clean, lean, and clinically perfect is the total opposite of the objective at hand here. To hear the music you will have to turn it up loud. When you do that, you will hear a barrage of fast, blasting metal coming your way.

Instrumentation: In a communication with this publication Profane Order’s Illusory has said about the drums: “As for the drums it’s all real. It’s a standard kit, two toms, hit hat, ride and two crashes. Most songs were done in one take while others 2-4 tries.”

Illusory, in addition, explained: “While profane order is a full band for the latest album is performed mostly by myself, illusory. Guitars, solos, drums, bass, vocals and keyboards were all performed by illusory. Second guitar tracks and half the solos were performed by our old guitarist T.G.”

Listeners should not expect to hear lots of keyboards, either. In some spots you might hear a little bit in the background, but that’s about it.

Vocals: The vocals are mostly a low-brutal savage growl. It is not a restrained nor monotonous kind of growl but rather aggressive/angry. The vocals have reverb on them for that caveman feel. There are some spots where the vocals have obviously been modified for that extra monstrous vibe.

Songs: Granted, things go at warp speed on this album, but you’d be surprised that, once you settle down to listen to this thing, the songs are chock full with the attitude of rock and roll. It’s not experimental tracks. There is a fun and crazy side to this extreme metal, expressed in simple savagery, speed and brutality.

Lyrics: If there is a religious agenda, that’s not clear here, but there is a joy in being contrarian to what society considers good values and morals. In a way, you could say, there is, above all, a huge misanthropic expression towards institutions.

Potential audience: Fanatics of what is nothing but bestial extreme metal (taking the speed and simplicity of the rawest punk and metal) should find a good time here.

Similar bands: Some bands that have specialized in this type barbarism are Blasphemy, Revenge, Black Witchery and others like those. This is the heritage of Motör-head/Venom, the very early sounds of bands like Sodom, Hellhammer, Mantas, Bathory, Sepultura, Sarcófago, and nowadays Profane Order takes all that extemity and pushes it as far as they can.

Assessment: The appeal of the music is limited by the shock rock nature of extreme metal and by the sheer velocity at which this is performed, but if extreme metal audiences listen with their ears (not their eyes), this music does make sense. You may not remember the songs immediately, not at first anyway, but this is all done with the best intentions of metal: songs to get you up from your seat and make you bang your head. Isn’t that rush of surging energy what you came here for?! sentientruin.bandcamp.com/album/slave-morality