Forepoint Records 2012
1.The Veil 2.Blood Calls 3.Driven By The Dark
4.Casting The Shroud Aside 5.Under Ancient Stone
As ‘The Veil’ slowly comes to life, you feel a
real atmosphere beginning to stir, melodic acoustic guitars building the
tension well before ‘Blood Calls’ bursts out of the speakers, heavy blackened
death metal in essence, scathing screamed vocals backed up by guttural growled
vocals. The atmosphere created in the short intro track is carried through well
into this first full track. There’s a ‘doom’ feel apparent, the band keeping
their foot off the pedal in terms of pace, preferring to keep the track slow to
mid paced. It’s all very well crafted and shows a real maturity to the bands
song writing style – no need for hyper speeds here, the intelligence of the
song is more than enough to keep you
entertained. ‘Driven By The Dark’ continues in a similar fashion, but with the
inclusion of acoustic melodic interludes which take on an almost progressive
feel and sit comfortably amongst the heavier death metal style guitar work.
Spiced up with some clever tremolo picked, black metal style riffing and all
the elements are there for another outstanding song. As the track draws to an
end, there’s real emotion being stirred through the riffs being used and once
again being at the slower end of the speed range but it’s the catchiness of the tune
that is more than enough anyway. ‘Casting The Shroud Aside’ is another prime example
of a band on top of their game and see’s the band adding new elements to their
sound, faster blasting sections incorporated in amongst the slower more melodic
sections which work well. Blast beats are always going to get the thumbs up! A
change in direction vocally as well, the guttural growled vocals taking the
lead through this track, but as before, mixed well with the higher screamed
style. Alex’s vocal style reminiscent of Johan Hegg of Amon Amarth fame.
Ending
this e.p is ‘Under Ancient Stone’ which blasts open furiously, blast beats used
plentifully and the general pace of the song a lot faster than seen in the
previous tracks. Ancient Ascendant are very good at writing memorable, catchy
and likable death metal songs, this final track being a prime example of how
to do just that. There’s a slightly more black metal feel to this track, mainly
due to the faster riffing and blast beats, which could almost be likened to a
lot of the black/death metal that was being spawned from many a Swedish band in
the early nineties. One point to note is the first rate production the band
have achieved, clear and with a crunch and a heaviness which is a pleasure to
listen to. Proving themselves to be one of the better bands in the UK extreme
metal underground at the moment, Ancient Ascendant have produced an extremely
well written e.p, packed full of intelligent song writing, catchy atmospheres
which all smacks of a band who have
found their style and are at ease writing songs which will instantly appeal to
a lot of extreme metal fans. Limited to 300 copies, it is probably a good idea
that you get yourself a copy of this, as they probably wont be available for
very long. Highly recommended
8 out of 10
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