Ascendant-The Alteration

Ascendant is a death/black metal band from Denmark who just recently released their debut album over in Denmark and are looking at a US release in the very near future.  On The Alteration the band delivers up eleven songs of well executed death metal with some black metal and metalcore garnishes .   Those who are seeking more of an unblack approach may be turned away by the deeper death metal growls and slight metalcore elements.

Right from the opening song The Alteration the Ascendant really stirs up their melting pot of influences.  What initially begins as a dissonant black metal song soon gives way to some vocal shouts of desperation and then cleverly transitions into a mid paced death metal track.  The transitions are not awkward at all, and what may start off sounding like a disjointed jigsaw puzzle will eventually form a picture that makes sense.  The band generally sticks to death metal as its main base and injects various other styles into the mix.  Within the album’s forty five minute duration, the listener can expect to hear heavy plodding guitars, dissonant tremolo picking, acoustic interludes, melodic buildups, black metal shrieks, death metal growls, lightning fast drumming, and even some melodic clean vocals.  The guitar work is quite dynamic, while the super tight drumming is the glue that holds the chaos together.  The vocals are also quite intense and contain a huge dose of emotion while still being very articulate. The production job is top notch and gives the CD a very professional quality.  The only real negative I had with the CD was that the clean vocals found on the song Consolation were not used anywhere else on the album, although this is just a very small disappointment.

With a debut album this strong, Ascendant is off to a fantastic start.  I am very anxious to see what the band will be able to pull off in the future.  With a sound that will appeal to several different fan bases be they Christian, secular, underground or mainstream, this band will definitely be a force to be reckoned with in the metal world.  I would highly recommend this CD to fans of A Hill to Die Upon, In Flames, Immortal Souls, Benea Reach, and Miseration.

Review by Daniel Terry