ANCIENT ASCENDANT
Raise The Torch
Candlelight (2017)
Rating: 8/10
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When I read that this British based quartet had shared the stage with the likes of Bolt Thrower, Sodom, Enslaved, Hypocrisy, Pestilence and Bloodbath, my expectations for Ancient Ascendant went sky high.
Every band I just mentioned is an “A” lister in the metal realm, but Bolt Thrower is the clincher. If you can share that stage with that calibre of band and make it work, you have my respect, and Ancient Ascendant earned it as soon as soon as I heard song number two, ‘Our Way’, on their third full-length record, Raise The Torch. I’m not kidding when I say it grabbed me through the speakers and shook holy hell out of me. Yeah, this band’s worthy. Hails!
Raise The Torch is an exercise in how damn good a band can be when they take the time to hone their songwriting skills and really tune in to the spirit of music itself, in this case, the many facets of that which metal offers.
I mentioned Bolt Thrower above, true masters at that craft. They knew how to make heavy music; when to play fast, when to slow down, and when to just rock the hell out, and that intimate knowledge of how to skillfully construct songs, in this fashion, really shines through with Raise The Torch. It’s not speed for speed or death growls because that’s what’s expected from a band in this genre. The band’s music is a dynamic woven tapestry of different metal styles that gel perfectly, in unison.
Ancient Ascendant has really proven, with this record, how intuitive and masterful they are at understanding how to balance their overall sound, riding a razor’s edge of melodic blackened death metal, which in the end, when it’s all said and done, flows seamlessly. But it’s all in technique, in how you pull it off, make it work, and Ancient Ascendant nails it, spot on throughout this record, an impressive feat for a band that’s only been around eight years, having released two albums and two EPs to date, not counting Raise The Torch. The band shows a lot of maturity on this disc since their debut EP, The Heathen Throne, in 2008.
It’s hard to pick stand out tunes on the album, but if hard pressed I’d have to say ‘Our Way’, ‘Foreign Skies’ and ‘Grasping The Torch’; solid European-style metal at its finest with hints of Rotting Christ, Blood Red Throne and Winterfylleth scattered throughout, adding to the many layered, textured sound that is Ancient Ascendant, against a backdrop of traditional metal, à la New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. Raise The Torch is a keeper. Ancient Ascendant is a band on the radar, and sure to watch out for.
Theron Moore
