It’s always a pleasure to introduce another Pennsylvania band to the larger international audience. Here’s Pittsburgh’s Order of Nine with their fifth albumSeventh Year of the Broken Mirror on Nightmare Records.

I had to laugh when I read the one-sheet which calls OoN’s style thrash metal. There may be some moments of that, but SYOTBM falls largely into the melodic progressive power metal category. Yet Order of Nine’s style is seems dark, at times even foreboding. And sometimes they remind me of brooding darker Queensryche, especially with Michael DeGrena’s. Sometimes he sounds like Geoff Tate, only in a lower register. His voice has, at times, an inherent sadness, a melancholy to it. Unfortunately, sometimes it seemed too familiar, lacking variation.

The history of Italy’s Adramelch dates to the late 1980’s with a seminal progressive metal album Irae Melanox. As is the case with so many bands, Adramelch dissolved after several years. History continues to be sketchy, but it appears they reincarnated in 2004 and then cut Broken History in 2005.

Now they’re back with their third effort Lights From Oblivion. The band blurs the line between several genres. This album is equally melodic rock as it is progressive rock, and sometimes it can near prog metal.

What makes Lights From Oblivionso intriguing is the band’s ability to put so much music in, generally, short compositions. Most songs clock in at five minutes, but offer lots of variety, intrigue, and excellent musicianship. Notable is the guitar solos and bass work. But that unfairly minimizes the other participants, all of which are extremely talented. The wild card here are the vocals from Vittorio Ballerio. He’s a good singer, yet sounds, throughout the album, somewhere between anguished and unsure. Yet, he still fits, and his style grows on you. Go figure.