I loved Orden Ogan's Easton Hope which came out at the beginning of the year, so I was happy to see AFM were re-releasing the previous album Vale, giving me the chance to hear it. I can't say I'm disappointed either, Orden Ogan are one of the more exciting bands in the genre of late and it would be great to see them maintain and increase on the quality of their last two releases.
In comparison to Easton Hope, Vale is a slightly deeper offering. Whereas Easton Hope was very immediate, Vale requires a little more time and entices you to look deeper for the hooks. There are only a handful of tracks here that strike as similar to the mastery displayed on Easton Hope, a lot of the tracks here are a little softer, ballad-esque in places.
Tracks such as "To New Shores of Sadness" and "Reality Lost" show the band doing what they do best, with their particularly tasty blend of power metal. "Reality Lost" is one of my picks from the album with some of the band's finest riff work. Then you have tracks such as "Lord of the Flies" and "This Is" which are slower, more mid-paced affairs, the former being another of my picks, I swear they used the Terminator theme in the chorus.
Overall if you enjoyed Easton Hope and have still yet to hear Vale there is no better time than now, with the AFM re-release of the album you get some pretty nifty bonus tracks, most notably the folk version of "We Are Pirates". While I still give the edge to Easton Hope as the band's finest work to date, Vale is a superb album that would make a worthy addition to any power metal fan's collection. Recommended.
