Not even the end of March and so far we’ve had some absolutely blinding British death metal records unleashed upon us….. Amputated, Basement Torture Killings, Cancerous Womb & Dripback have all smashed us to bits with their latest releases and now we have ‘Echoes & Cinder’ the 2nd full length from Reading’s Ancient Ascendant hitting the racks (or whatever records do in the digital download age of the google internizer), does it measure up?
Yes it fucking does!!!
“Raise the crone to burn again” barks Alex Butler as album opener ‘Crones To The Flames’ leaps out of trap one. A total banger and a great kick off to the album.
The band sound super confident and tighter than a gnats chuff throughout the album. All the graft and heavy touring schedule (with such veterans as Enslaved & Hypocrisy) has paid off big time. There’s a marked improvement over 2012’s (already excellent) ‘Into The Dark’ EP. The band seem to have found a very comfortable groove and it’s almost as if they’re saying, ‘we know who we are and we know exactly what we’re fucking doing’ as the whole album flows together in a mature way the previous EPs and 2011’s debut LP ‘The Grim Awakening’ didn’t and they fully deserve their position as Candlelight’s latest signings.
There’s a notable touch of Iron Maiden to some of the guitar harmonies (the opening of ‘Fuelling The Fire’ is a prime example) and some of Alex & Nariman Poushin’s guitar licks (1m39s into ‘Riders’) are pure rock magnificence! Instrumental ‘Embers’ sounds like it could’ve been written for ‘Game Of Thrones’ and segues nicely into my fave track, the near 6 minute ‘Break The Binds’, a progressive death metal epic and a real treat.
All this and some wicked solos makes for a fantastic listening experience. I’d liken Ancient Ascendant to Skeletonwitch (only better as they’re British!) in some ways as the music doesn’t limit itself to pure death metal all the time but is more a tasty blend of blackened thrash with the best deathly vocals so far from frontman Alex. Coupled with a great production job from Dan Swano this is yet another essential purchase, not just for death metal fans but all metal heads. Do it – you will not be disappointed.
(9/10 Mark Eve)
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