Ancient Ascendant - The future of Death Metal!!!

*****

Ancient Ascendant bring 'Ashes and Cinder' to London opening for Darkest Era.

There atmosphere is electrifying at the Garage in Highbury Islington tonight. Arsenal are playing a foreign team, so there are crowds from both sides walking in their thousands towards Arsenal's stadium a mile or so down the road and police are everywhere (My editor Dan Devour will probably kill me for mentioning this team in the review being a die hard West Ham fan), but I think this is important because it makes tonight's show even more exciting to me. There's an infectious feeling of anticipation with an underlying feeling that something could kick off also. I'm not a football fan never have been so off I go into the dark dingy Relentless Garage.

Rising Death Metallers Ancient Ascendant take to the stage with determination, and you can see why with every release getting better and even darker. The band are becoming bit by bit one of the UK's most exciting Death Metal bands. Tonight they are only playing songs from their latest album 'Ashes and Cinder' and the EP that came before 'Into the Dark'. The band play their songs with precision and passion, never relying on just blastbeats and "Brutality". They play a thought out set using their short stage time to their full advantage, knowing exactly when to speed things up, slow them down and when to through in a bastard sized Black Sabbath flavored Doom section.

Coming somewhere between classic Morbid Angel and 'Heartwork' era Carcass with a sprinkling of Black Metal. Frontman Alex Butler has a commanding presence while the band are all in tune with each other. It's one of those rare sets where you watch the band and you know it wouldn't make a shed of difference if they were playing to no one they would play exactly the same. Songs like 'To break the Binds' and 'Caged in The Tunnels of Time' sound excellent tonight. Ancient Ascendant make modern, relevant Death Metal but still have kept that murky bleak feeling that came with so many important extreme albums back in the 90's. There's a real important album coming from this band mark my words.

Ancient Ascendant - Setlist
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Driven by the Dark
To break the Binds
Blood Calls
Under ancient Stone
Patterns of Bane
Caged in the tunnels of Time

Review and Photo's by Joe Denby

Check Out! the Video for 'Driven by the Dark' Below...

www.musictrespass.com/content/darkest-era-are-band-ireland-should-be-proud