Order of Ennead
Deep Black Metal Waters
By: Christian Cipollini (Posted By: Bear Frazer)
Last updated May 11th , 2010

Florida is home to more than insects, transients, and orange groves - this is ground zero for the death metal scene.  According to the Tampa-based group Order of Ennead's guitarist John Li, "It must be something in the water." Well, whatever they're all drinking in the sunshine state, it's definitely working to make some progressive moves within the genre. Order of Ennead, the creation of former Council of the Fallen vocalist Kevin Quirion, pursues the best parts of death and black metal, throws in a subtle dose of thrash, and urges their moshing fans to look inside themselves for the answers to life's many questions.

When Quirion's Council of the Fallen ended, he took some unused material and a new outlook on the sound and vocal style to create Order of Ennead as a more progressive death or black metal band. Also joining Quirion's new formation was Deicide drummer Steve Asheim and Council of the Fallen bassist Scott Patrick. The name, Order of Ennead, refers to a mythical group of nine that created the universe and bestowed knowledge upon man.  The collective adopted the name not so much to bestow knowledge, but to represent that potential within all of us to seek out and find such knowledge.

"One thing I really liked about this band was the lyrics don't tell you what to think," Li explains of the group's philosophy. "Order of Ennead isn't telling you to do anything but find your own meaning. We're not indoctrinating anybody."  

Li also pointed to the stereotype that black metal is often thought of with negative connotations, such as Satanism or the intentional use of less-than-stellar production, but that's not what Order of Ennead is all about.  "Kevin just writes what he writes, and doesn't really try to copy any sound," Li says.  "And I play the way I play.  It's black metal, but it has high quality recording and production.  Some have panned us because they think black metal should have a sort of bad quality to it and that makes it more genuine. We're just trying to play metal, not a specific genre. A lot of death metal will tell you things like, ‘stay away from Christianity,' but at the same time if they're worshipping Satan, they're being hypocrites.  Order of Ennead isn't telling you to do anything but find your own meaning. We're not indoctrinating anybody."  

Lyrically, Order of Ennead takes an introspective approach, leaving specific religious and political views to listeners. "We definitely sort through the songs, and consider if it's appropriate enough," he explains.  "It the Order of Ennead philosophy, we want to have a very cohesive theme to our music. It comes naturally, but its never going to be arbitrary.  We don't write about the Ennead.  The lyrics are always about introspection.  Ennead is sort of an allegory for that mode of thinking. It's all about self-knowledge and worldly knowledge.  The only way to know about the world is to know about yourself first.   Kevin takes the idea of Ennead and applies it to ourselves."

The band's sophomore release, An Examination of Being, is a nine track album that Li says was certainly put together in short time, but that's because all the members had their parts down near perfectly.  "I tracked my parts in about two or three days.  About three weeks altogether to finish it.  It was relaxing.  We had already demoed out the songs, so we knew exactly what we wanted to do."  The end result, he says, was a more cohesive album than their first.  "I think it shows through our music.  It's a lot more progressive.  There are sections that are ambient."

Ambience and progressiveness are just two of the elements in the Florida waters.

[Tags] Metal, Rock

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