The name of this band did not ring any bell, even though ‘Ascension’ is the second CD from these Americans from Appleton, Wisconsin already. Too bad actually, for the band walks the difficult, but beautiful path of Progressive Metal, and by no means in the wrong direction.
According to the biography the band started writing songs a couple of years ago influenced by personal heroes like King Diamond, Queensrÿche and Fates Warning. Now that is still very obvious when you listen to the new CD, but it seems that these gentlemen have listened very carefully to the debut album from Dream Theater also. Just listen to the intro of ‘Twisted Strand’, which sounds a lot like that of ‘The Ytse Jam’. Besides these well-known Prog Metal names I also encountered a rather familiar Thrash fellowship, for the acoustic bridge in the song ‘The Cloak’ is a dead ringer for Flotsam & Jetsam’s intro for ‘Der Führer’. Furthermore, this album is full of technical well founded material, played in the way you would expect from a Prog Metal band: lots of tempo changes, contra-rhythms, acoustic parts, melodic guitarsolos, the only thing missing are the keyboards, which are so popular with bands in this genre nowadays. This automatically means that this album has a definitive 80’s feel.
Well, it is not only the lack of keyboards actually, because the production sounds like the album was recorded somewhere around 1986. Not a major problem though, for every now and then it reminds me of the sound on Heir Appetent’s debut LP ‘Graceful Inheritance’ (and that album still kicks major ass), but a slightly more modern touch would not have hurt anyone. What contributes to the feelings of 80’s dejá-vu also is the voice of singer Steve Gantz, which sounds like a mix of John Cyriis (ex-Agent Steel) and Charly Dominici (ex-Dream Theater). And let us not forget the Queensrÿche cover ‘The Whisper’, a song that is about 16 years old by now.
I think it is quite clear for which kind of metalhead this album was made; so all of you, lovers of Progressive Metal, invest an hour’s worth of listening at your local record dealer. And if you rather not bother to get off your lazy asses, just download the mp3 from ‘Twisted Strand’, available from the Talamasca website. You will not regret it.
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