Reviews: Ascension, Witch Ripper, Morphetik, So Long Space Girl (Reviews By Matt Bladen, AV4Apod, Mark Young & GC)

Ascension - Under The Veil Of Madness (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]

Now I love Dragonforce (so much so I actually auditioned to be their singer) so as soon as I pressed play on Under The Veil Of Madness I was immediately transported back to Sonic Firestorm, the album I discovered them on (and still their best IMO). Cue a huge smile, much fist in the air singalongs and finger cramp from excessive air guitar. From the high pitched vocals, to the twin guitar harmonies, classical keyboard runs that move between Bach and Nintendo rounded off with drums that hit lightspeed, it's got every single thing I like about the London 'Extreme Power Metal' proponents.

Ascension however are Scottish, that country having a pedigree in power metal bands (though lest said about cretinous Pirates the better.), this second album having been in the works for long time, as they all did there own thing, but my god it's worth the wait for a power metal fan! Tracks like Defiance, manage to shift the pace a few times, adding dynamics so you don't get complacent with the blasting, but if you like blasting, widdling and shredding so fast Sir Malcolm Campbell would get excited there's plenty of that here.

In the role of guitar heroes are Stuart Docherty and Fraser Edwards (who's solo album blew me away in 2020) and they will definitely impress anyone who loves their power metal with all the pace of a herd of gazelle, both playing off each other in a wonderfully silly tandem where the two-hand tapping and virtuoso showing off is very much welcomed. Singing the occult or fantasy based lyrics is Ricko Carnie who I'm sure hits notes only dogs can hear, he is comfortable in the true power metal singer style tries to crack the sky with his voice. But can also use the lower register for the proggy Last Winter's Night, where bassist Nick Blake gets a jazzy solo, in a change from galloping along with drummer Dick Gilchrist.

Now I made point of mentioning Dragonforce at the top of this review but as they move towards the end of the record the title track takes from the quirkiness from Helloween and Pages Of Gold has the orchestral prog of Blind Guardian, making for a power metal menagerie that covers many bases and will have any power metal fan salivating. I fell in love with this album and I can't wait to see them at the earliest point possible. AOTY contender to for me and it's only February 10/10 

Witch Ripper - The Flight After The Fall (Magnetic Eye Records) [Quinn @AV4Apod]

Until Curtis Parker’s brutally beautiful (brutiful?) sludge vocals came in around minute three of the album opener on The Flight After The Fall I thought I was listening to a different Witch Ripper. I could be forgiven. I listen to metal. A lot of terrible stuff happens to witches here. But then I had to reckon with the fact that my favourite home-town sludge band from Seattle had added a new, clean vocalist/guitarist, Chad Fox to their arsenal. I was a huge fan of Witch Ripper’s previous LP Homestead and so I found myself torn about this new direction… until about halfway through that first track. Enter The Loop is such a sublime, breathtaking song, that it doesn’t matter whether its sludge or prog, it doesn’t matter if its bluegrass-disco-funk, it’s just unequivocally brilliant music and I am sold.

Any band that wants to expand their sound runs a number of risks in doing so. Not only do they need to incorporate a whole series of new tools, but also learn how to use the old tools that got them to where they are in a new way that doesn’t make them seem vestigial or like an afterthought. The one-two punch of Fox’s clean, soaring vocals, that echoes Brann Dailor of late Mastodon (or as Brent Hinds once put it “That Whitney Houston voice”) and Parker’s brutiful low-end growl feels like a natural extension of somewhere Witch Ripper always wanted to go. Nowhere is the combination more effective than on Icarus Equation the emotional peak of the record before a near-17 minute closer Everlasting In Retrograde takes the album out on a haunting, atmospheric note. Witch Ripper has faced the risks inherit in expanding their sound head-on and leapt light years beyond them.

The second track, Madness and Ritual Solitude deserves credit as my sleeper favourite for driving chaotically but purposefully toward the album’s B-Side. The only place the record falters is the chorus of The Obsidian Forge where Fox’s repetitive vocal melody compromises an otherwise great song. So, it’s not all glowing descriptions and cosmic roses but when I try to summarise what Witch Ripper has managed to achieve in expanding their sound so successfully, there is really only one word that comes to mind… brutiful. 9/10

Morphetik - Proclamation Of War (Witches Brew) [Mark Young]

Swedish old-school violent raw thrash! Depending on which school you went to will alter how you perceive that statement. Its trotted out so often that it’s used just as another tag line. That is not the case here. Formed by members of Nazghor and Necrobeast to provide an alternative to death and black metal that Sweden is known for. Citing influences that run to South America and Europe instead of the traditional American bands it gives them a more unique approach with obviously taking ingredients from their day jobs.

Its certainly raw and with 10 songs in 26 minutes you get an idea of just how keen they are to reinforce their point. They are in a hurry here and the songs themselves could have been at home in the golden period from 85 to 89. Each of the songs just riff out and because of their length there is no chance of you getting fatigue from listening to repeated musical passages.

 
Given its length it’s incredibly difficult to provide a review where you can dive into it and talk on the themes and topics but when you have a song that is called Death From Above you know what you are getting. You are getting riffs, you are getting fast BPM’s, you are getting solos and madman drumming. They keep this up all the way through without being just one note and boring and when you consider that they wanted to give you a raw experience they have succeeded.

 
It’s not deep, it’s not complicated, and it answers their objectives in delivering an absolute kick ass album for those who feel that music generally peaked in the mid to late 80’s. There is a feeling that you wonder just how deep the creative well is when regarding thrash metal but that is a problem for the next release. I’m not sure if this is a creative side-project for them or is the main output now but for it’s a good start for them to build upon.

Going back to the bio, you can take from it that the live is where they want to unleash these songs in the proper environment where you can get the proper experience that might be lacking on the release. My score is based on the fact that they have succeeded in providing a raw thrash experience and that it absolutely rips from start to finish. The problem is that you will have heard this before but if you can ignore that then it’s a little cracker. 6/10

So Long, Space Girl - Your Heroes Are All Dead (Self Released) [GC]

This week I am moving slightly out of my comfort zone and taking on some pop-punk, now I don’t mind some pop-punk but I wouldn’t say its something I listen to regularly and if I do its usually US bands as they just seem to do it better, but this week I have UK based So Long, Space Girl and their new release Your Heroes Are All Dead. It’s a drab Monday so not sure how this will turn out, but this sort of music is meant to be bright, happy and bouncy so maybe it will cheer me up.

The first thing I notice on title track and opener Your Heroes Are All Dead, is that it sounds flat and uninspiring, the music itself is what you would expect bouncy guitars and the bass is just high enough in the mix to not get lost but the drums just sound they are made out of cardboard and the vocals just drag along and are monotone and boring, Spineless takes a more relaxed feel and starts off slow and uses a quiet/loud dynamic to try and make things interesting, it doesn’t and the lyrics are shite and unfortunately they are mixed so high they become the songs main focal point and it suffers horrendously for this.

Peaches And Cream again falls flat on its arse and just sounds empty and lacks the energy needed to propel anything forward and the vocalist sounds like he can’t be arsed all the way through this song, I can imagine how boring it would be to see them live, anyway I Hate You But I Hate Myself More is yet more of the same drab uninspired noise and now it’s not really punk at all its more alt-rock than anything else, ultimately nothing stands out here or makes you really want to keep listening, the music is boring and the vocals are tedious and like a 13 year old wrote them in a bad mood, Reasons attempts to throw in some urgency and just grates because the vocalist is doing some type of shitty Brian Molko impression and its almost too funny to deal with until I remember I am meant to be reviewing this steaming pile of shit!

I am at the halfway point now and Turn It Off unfortunately isn’t an instruction, it’s another horrible and painstaking listen and the Placebo worship gets worse on this song, someone must have told him once he sounds kind of like Brian and he has taken it and ran with it, someone now needs to tell him to fucking well stop it! Like A Bomb is so bland its painful, there is no personality or feeling to anything on offer here and it’s a real chore to listen to, the same however doesn’t apply to Rust it does finally show some balls and the melodies and music mix together nicely and does feel more like the pop-punk that I was meant to be getting and is actually a half decent song but feels like it’s all a little too late really!

Tonight is and absolute crime of a song and makes me want to be sick, it’s a piano led ballad and it’s just so self-pitying and pathetic, I hate this album and this song in particular, do yourself a favour and skip this track. Pull The Trigger tries to recapture the pop-punk ship again and is alright but there just not enough to keep my attention, The Great Undying is 6:33 of torture, not one song on this album should be this long! FINALLY, A Long Way To Run, A Longer Way To Climb is here to close the song and it does so on a completely predictable and uninspiring alt-rockesque note.

I HATED this album, I was expecting bouncy feel good pop-punk and I got an alt-rock Placebo worship tribute band and yes, I also hate Placebo. This was an album full of boring, life sapping and tedious songs that should not be listened to anyone, at any time, ever! The only reason it didn’t get a zero was that a couple of songs were just ok to listen to. If you know what is good for you avoid this album, because you will regret it if you don’t. 1/10