ASCENSION (SCT) — Far Beyond the Stars (review)

ASCENSION (SCT) — Far Beyond the Stars album cover Album · 2012 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
adg211288
Far Beyond The Stars is the debut full-length album by Scottish power metal act Ascension (not to be confused with a number of other artists using the same name). The band, who have been active since 2004 have released a number of minor releases up until this point. Far Beyond The Stars was released in 2012.

At a casual listen it should be clear to anyone that the main driving force behind Far Beyond The Stars is European styled melodic power metal. At its core it’s a fairly typical sound for the genre that Ascension has produced although they do it very well. Dig a bit deeper though and it becomes more and more apparent that there are many influences out of progressive metal within the album. Not enough really to set it apart from the power metal clichés that are the more obvious influence for the band’s music, but enough to keep the album flowing through an about an hour duration without getting stale. It still feels very much an ‘it’s all been done before’ album, so you can’t expect anything revolutionary, but Ascension clearly know their craft well and produced a solid first album in Far Beyond The Stars.

There is in fact little negativity that can rightly be aimed at the album. The only real reason I can’t score this one higher is that it just doesn’t have enough of its own identity to justify any higher than a ‘great album’ tier rating. The musicians clearly have the chops and the talent at writing within the genre, and their vocalist Richard Carnie has an impressive set of pipes for this sort of music to top it all off. There is simply room for the young band to grow yet. But for a first album Far Beyond The Stars is very much a job well done to these ears, and a recommended release for power metal fans.

8.2/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org) on 29/08/12)
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