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New Music Reviews, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal, AOR, Alternative Rock, Alternative Metal
Recent Reviews
June 2019
- Sweet Oblivion Featuring Geoff Tate: Sweet Oblivion
- Stargazery: Eye On The Sky (Reissue, 2019)
- Sandness: Untamed
- Neal Morse: Jesus Christ - The Exorcist
- Chaos Magic Featuring Caterina Nix: Furyborn
- Timo Tolkki's Avalon: Return To Eden
- Wheels Of Fire: Begin Again
- Warrior Soul: Rock N Roll Disease
- The Rods: Brotherhood Of Metal
- Majestica: Above The Sky
- Ruler: Descent Into Hades
- Pretty Wild: Interstate 13
- Nth Ascension: Stranger Than Fiction
- Leathurbitch: Into The Night
- Bai Bang: Best Of Four
- X-Romance: Voices From The Past
May 2019
- Stormhammer: Seven Seals
- SOTO: Origami
- Alliance: Fire And Grace
- The Brink: Nowhere To Run
- Restless Spirits: Restless Spirits
- Morano: Incognito
- Big Big Train: Grand Tour
- Ruthless: Evil Within
- Spirit Adrift: Divided By Darkness
- Black Horizon: Dark Light
- Crazy Lixx: Forever Wild
- First Signal: Line Of Fire
Ashent: Inheritance
Ashent: Inheritance
Progressive Metal
3.5/5.0
With 2009's Deconstructive, Italian metal band Ashent attempted to break from European power metal mold with a more progressive sound. Largely, they succeeded, although it was sometimes uneven. This year's Inheritance builds upon that foundation as Ashent tries press farther into the realm of progressive metal.
Ashent: putting the big guy up front.
Again, generally, they have succeeded. Some of the success comes from a new lead vocalist, Titta Tani, who is a quite versatile singer and arranger. Additionally, Ashent have made their arrangements more technical, even complex, adding sequencers, synths, some sax inserts, orchestral parts, and choirs.
Sometimes, however, this attempt at invention and complexity blows back on them. Songs like Eve, Shipwrecked Affair, and Spider's Nest are so thick that it sounds like there are several songs overlapping one another in the same arrangement. Some of this may be due to the mix, but I doubt it. Conversely La Danzatrice Scalza has the complete opposite feeling. It's nearly perfect prog, interestingly, but not severely, technical, and simply delightful to the ears. Actually, Ashent seems to better when they're not trying to fill a song with a trick in their bag. Renaissance and the closing instrumental Labyrinthique are entertaining in their lack of complexity.
Yet, overall, Inheritance Inheritance continues to deepen the Ashent's exploration into more complex progressive metal, but sometimes with mixed results. Recommended.
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In Short
Overall, Inheritance continues to deepen the Ashent's exploration into more complex progressive metal, but sometimes with mixed results.
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