ORDER OF THE NAMELESS ONES is a new Blackened Death Metal band, and they just released their debut album, "Utter to Me the Word of Wrath." They are taking on that gimmick where they don't reveal their names and all that which may be something trending right now with bands like BATUSHKA and, duh, GHOST, but it's getting kind of old. This album is pretty basic as far as Blackened Death Metal goes. I mean, we all know that tremolo riffs are a staple in any blackened genre, but these guys take that very seriously. Almost every riff is tremolo, if it isn't some Doom-laden chugger.

There are good things to be said about most of the tracks on this album, but these good things are individual riffs. They aren't atmospheres, developing ideas, or changes in the structure. It's all just riff after riff. The only track that has my attention all the way through it the last one, and I'll get to that later. Other than these individual riffs, everything else is very lacking and is drowned in the tremolo-saturated songwriting. There are some cool parts in "The Stone That Begs for Blood," at least. Other than having a bad-ass name, this track offers riffs that have some sort of character. However much it may present, in the long run, they aren't even very original. I've heard all this stuff before. This is the biggest flaw this album has to offer. Originality took a vacation during the majority of the writing of this album.

In fact, I think the only riff I can call original on here happens about a third of the way through "Depraved Covenant." It's heavy and much needed as this album fails to deliver anything other than an abrasiveness that, despite the short run-time of this album, gets old very quickly. I'm not saying that this band is completely brain-dead. There is potential in the majority of the tracks, but it never reaches its full power. The last riff on "Praise Your Sinister Form" is pretty awesome, but this riffage is not seen anywhere else on the album.

I think that the best part about this album is the final track, "Utter to Me the Word of Wrath." Everything leading up to it isn't the best, most developed material, but the last track is just that. It's slow-paced, but it hits hard, and it has some sort of atmosphere to it that isn't just created by riffs. It's helped by the insane, whispered vocals. The twisting, bending guitars and the whispered vocals that occur at times make this song sound truly evil, and this is just the ending that this album needed.

The production is bad, but that's expected for anything labeled "blackened," so the album won't lose points for that. However, there isn't much originality here, nor is there any memorability. After the few of times I've listened to the album, I cannot tell you what occurred on the record because it sort of just smashes all together into one, long mess of tremolo riffs.