ASCENDANT
“A THOUSAND ECHOES”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

8/10

Ascendant are a heavy metal band from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), forming in 2012 and taking the UAE metal scene by storm. The band deliver hard hitting and punchy heavy metal, their live shows full of energy and excitement, with 2018 the year of the bands debut album.

The epic and glory styles of heavy metal music is what you get with the debut release from Ascendant. You get heavy, you get stomping, you get power and you also get melodic too. The chilling and atmospheric ‘Twilight Of Eden’ is a two minute instrumental featuring a menacing spoken word passage, that leads into the heavy hitting ‘Doomsday Machine’. Stomping very heavily, ‘Doomsday Machine’ is a thunderous “fist in the air” slab of concrete smashing heavy metal that pounds and pummels. A cracking start to an album that is almost an hour in length with only eight songs on offer…the longest clocking in at thirteen minutes! Songs three, four and five all run in excess of six minutes apiece and span many of the sub genres of heavy metal. ‘Walls Between Us’ is mid tempo, full of energy and packs a punch hard enough to knock out a world champion boxer in the first round. Nod your head hard as the unrelenting heaviness marches on.

An effects laden opening breathes life into ‘Fog Of War’ as it gently glides in before, boom, the foot stomping mid tempo heaviness comes crashing in like a wrecking ball. Thundering on at a near doom metal thud, ‘Fog Of War’ is punishing and may just leave a few bruises, such is its savagery. Just how heavy can this album get? Much more, if ‘Morning Light’ has anything to say…and it has lots to say. Very heavy guitars and a pulsating deep rhythm give ‘Morning Light’ the heaviest vibe on the album. Even the unexpected female backing vocals doesn’t remove any of the songs heaviness. ‘Morning Light’ is heavy mid tempo metal at its most gravity pulling. The title song ‘Land Of A Thousand Echoes’ is a nine minute epic rollercoaster, taking the listener on a journey through the epic, glory, melodic and power metal genres as it meanders on its way. Not knowing which turn ‘Land Of A Thousand Echoes’ will take next, keeps the interest of the listener for all of its nine minutes and also provides plenty of opportunity for the band to display their musical prowess and dexterity.

Intensity levels rise through the roof as the thunderous and unrelenting mid tempo foot stomp emphatically returns in the mighty shape of ‘False Illusion’. Heaviness knows no limits as Ascendant deliver jack hammer style riffs throughout ‘False Illusion’. ‘Tears Of His Majesty’ gently rolls in and then takes off with a thundering NWOBHM style guitar riff and then continues to gallop on at pace, losing nothing of the albums underlying heaviness. Indeed, there may just be a touch of the melodic thrown into the mix too. At over seven minutes in length, there is no getting bored as the song maintains all of its bluff and bluster from start to finish. The album is brought to a close with the thirteen minute meander ‘At The End Of The World’, which is in three parts, all with differing influences. The first part is all classic heavy metal, hard hitting and rampant, followed by a mellow acoustic fuelled passage that builds towards a crescendo ending with a climactic hard hitting heavy metal stomp. The final part is a wandering keyboard sway, that plays out the album.

Overall, a very heavy debut release with plenty of punchy, stompy and hard hitting songs to pound and pummel the senses.

TRACKLIST

Twilight Of Eden
Doomsday Machine
Walls Between Us
Fog Of War
Morning Light
Land Of A Thousand Echoes
False Illusion
Tears Of His Majesty
At The End Of The World

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