DARK ORDER - THE VIOLENCE CONTINUUM – BATTLEGOD PRODUCTIONS  
This is a re-issue of the band’s sophomore effort originally released in 2002. Mission To The Continuum starts things off with a space ship receiving a stress signal from Earth and setting course back to help and it instantly becomes obvious where the theme or concept of The Violence Continuum lies. War Has Begun is next and is a thrashy song in the vein of Slayer’s Divine Intervention with Raul Ignacio Alvarez sounding just like Tom Araya at times too. The Terran Empire continues in the same vain but is also reminiscent of Exodus. Slaves Of A Nameless God is almost a carbon copy of the aforementioned Slayer album with a bit of Testament thrown in. En Sabah Nur ups the Testament dosage and one can almost imagine listening The New Order. S.J.N. is more Exodus again with a bit of Vio-lence. Condition Red uses Star Trek terms describing the federation at war with the Cardassians and musically it is a mix of anything and everything thrash metal. Built Of Blood, Not Stone is on the speedier side with again Slayer, Dittohead in this case, very much the inspiration. Part one of The Moby Dick Trilogy starts is Overture, a mostly acoustic song easily at home on Metallica’s Black album. Blood Of The Sea takes a sharp turn towards Manowar and is not very effective. Once More Unto The Breach closes off the Moby Dick trio of songs and the album with a mix of the epic-like and speedier components before it and a long traditional heavy metal solo thrown in for good measure.
For buying into this re-release the buyer is also treated to video clips of The Terran Empire and Slaves Of The Nameless God and a slideshow, all found on the second side of a double sided disc. - Anna Tergel