UMUR
"Dawn Bringer" is the second full-length studio album US, Missouri based black/death metal act Order From Chaos. The album was released through Shivadarshana Records in 1995. It´s the succcessor to "Stillbirth Machine" from 1992 and still features the trio lineup of Mike Miller (drums), Chuck Keller (guitars), and Pete Helmkamp (vocals, bass). The two full-length studio albums are bridged by several minor releases (demos, singles, EPs), so Order From Chaos weren´t inactive in the three years between the two full-length album releases.
"Dawn Bringer" is a bit of an oddity considering that it´s labelled a full-length studio album, as there are actually only four new original compositions featured on the eight track, 40:36 minutes long album. The remaing tracks are yet another re-recording of "Webs of Perdition" (a track which had already appeared on three releases before this one), a cover of "War and Pain" by Voivod (which had already appeared as the B-side on the 1994 "Jericho Trumpet" single), and two live tracks ("As the Body Falls Away" and "Forsake Me This Mortal Coil" from "Stillbirth Machine"). The album even opens with 3 minutes of intro noise making the total time of new material 16:56 minutes (if you discount the three minutes of opening noise), which is arguably in the low end for a studio album. The label probably needed some extra material to be able to put out a full-length studio album and dug through the archives and found some.
But while the tracklist is a bit questionable in terms of calling this a full-length studio album, the material is still of a decent quality. Not fully on par with the material on "Stillbirth Machine", but still quality blackened death metal done the chaotic Order From Chaos way. Pete Helmkamp sounds as gnarly pissed as ever, and the charming organic rawness of past releases is also present here. The whole thing does come off like it was put together with material from different sessions/recordings, so they couldn´t hide that fact, and therefore it doesn´t function well as an album, but much better as a compilation release. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.