CoC : The Ordeal - Kings of Pain : Review

The Ordeal - _Kings of Pain_
(Mausoleum Records, 2004)
by: Aaron McKay (2 out of 10)

Noticeable mastery of instrumentation, solid production, and rather genuinely heavy passages comprise about all the positive things that can be said about this debut from The Ordeal. The angle, of sorts, for this four-piece outfit comes at the hands of vocalist and guitarist (thought not credited for the latter on this release) Oliver Oppermann, a.k.a. Steam. Steam delivers a sensible hodgepodge of cleanly sung vocals where the approach is marked with intelligible lyrics, but clearly tedious and tiresome nonetheless. This nine track retrogression into onion skin thinly veiled modern day Saxon-era virtuoso soloist-style nonsense is mostly agonizing. "Did You Say You Love Me?" and "Aliens in Spain" will go a long way to giving you an idea of what _Kings of Pain_ puts forward on this album. While I just received this release late this year, it has been out for more than a year. If you are asking yourself why review it then, the answer is simple: protect the unsuspecting from The (whole) Ordeal of exposure to _Kings of Pain_. With all the accomplished material on the scene, now and in recent past, I cannot offer much of an argument at all as to why one would risk wasting time with this release.

Contact: http://www.mausoleum-records.com

(article published 7/11/2005)