Album Review: 'Order of the Minus' by Project Renegade

By Maxwell McClellan

As a fan of various metal subgenres, such as power metal and death metal, I was intrigued when I was told of a new band called Project Renegade. Having origins in Athens, Greece, Project Renegade is an up-and-coming metal band consisting of four members: Marianna as the vocalist, Ody as the drummer, Nick K. as the guitarist and Jay as their bassist. They have released music in the past in the form of their single, “Cerebra”, released in 2017, but 2019’s “Order of the Minus” would be their first full-length album. Upon listening to every song in the album, it was clear that “Order of the Minus” had distinct themes of defiance and unity in the face of bleakness, and each song builds upon those themes in unique ways. 

Having origins in Athens, Greece, Project Renegade is an up-and-coming metal band consisting of four members: Marianna as the vocalist, Ody as the drummer, Nick K. as the guitarist and Jay as their bassist. (Courtesy of Project Renegade)

The first song in the album is titled “Liber8.” Here, the lyrics describe how the world is defeated and uses imagery such as people wearing reins in order to drive home the message of oppression and control. It’s clearly supposed to be a rallying cry for people living in desolation, which is very evident in the lyrics which recite, “We’re gonna rise against their lies and they will pay for everything.” Even through its grim imagery and the creation of an almost apocalyptic vision of the world, the song constantly reminds the listener of the importance of fighting back.  

This bleakness is continued in “Products of War,” where the lyrics tell of descending into war to the point where the bloodshed is becoming mundane and pointless. The drums are reverberating, and the guitar is vicious, which fits in with the themes of war and how the violence is growing strong enough to be a storm. I see this as kind of a continuation of the messages of “Liber8,” as sort of a reason for the singer’s rallying cry in the previous song. 

“The New Joker” is their most popular song on Spotify, and for good reason. Whereas the songs beforehand were fairly general in terms of what they were addressing, this one appears to have a specific party that the singer speaks to. There is a constant theme of two-faces and lies throughout, strengthened by mentions of things such as “hiding behind walls.” I listened to this song and thought about how this fits in with the album’s themes of defiance and grim futures, and I believe that this piece speaks out against the people that trivialize conflicts that affect the larger world. These same people may be the subjects of the lyrics, “always the joker,” driving home this tendency to trivialize problems and make light of them while comparing those thoughts to infectious lies to describe how dangerous this behavior is.  

Other songs follow similarly bleak ideas, such as “In Another Life” being about searching for the nobler path in the darkness, and “The Strain” implying a power that the subject of the song, and perhaps the album as a whole, has over the singer, instilling fear and hate into them. Out of all of the songs so far, however, “Respirator” is probably my favorite from the album. It starts with an ambiance that uses deep breathing and the beeping of hospital machinery, giving the impression that the subject is literally in a hospital being kept alive on a ventilator. Already, that sets the image for the theme of imprisonment. The singer is unable to tell if they are alive or dead, stuck in a nightmare that they can control, but are unable to. The song feels suffocating, which is realized in the verses where Marianna’s vocals are hushed and winded as if she is trying hard to breathe on her own and failing. The small details of the song which highlight the content of the lyrics are what really makes this one for me. 

Finally, after “Sylar” tells of reaching beyond and defying the world around you while becoming more powerful and enlightened, that hopefulness is shattered by the final song of the album, “Black Mountain.” This song starts out slower and calmer before gradually picking up with the instruments slowly being introduced. The layering of Marianna’s vocals makes the song almost hypnotizing, and I do believe this is the song where she shows her true vocal talent. The lyrics tell of a sort of bad ending, as if there is no hope and the titular black mountain is this impending force of darkness that threatens to consume this already broken world. It may seem like a terrible ending after the earlier songs’ attempts to break free from this desolation, but the way I see it, the song is a warning to act before the black mountain comes, with the other songs strengthening that fighting spirit to act now. 

“Order of the Minus”is one heck of a way to start off the first album. Project Renegade clearly states what this album is going to be about in their prelude, “The Big Boss,” and then continues to drive that message forward with an aggressive instrumental and great vocal work by Marianna. While my tastes and preferences in metal lie in other subgenres, this is one album that I can definitely see putting the band in the spotlight. Here is to hope for more albums to come.

Maxwell is a culture writer for La Tonique.