Ascension - Somewhere Back In Time

It’s rare to come across much power metal from Scotland – Gloryhammer only sort of counts! - but Ascension have been flying the flag of the Land of Legal Tender since 2009, where they began as a rough five-piece outfit and have become a much more put together one since then. That’s no slight on their music, however; these guys have power metal in their very DNA, and it shows from top to bottom. In the five albums they’ve released since their inception, they’ve had more guitar notes than hot meals by the sounds of it – and that is exactly how powerful we like our metal around here, thank you very much.

There’s something delightfully rough edged about a song in a genre that is usually so over produced that it isn’t polished until you can see up your own nose on its surface (I’m pretty sure the drummer is out of time more than once, and there’s a handful of accidental string mutes sprinkled in like little Easter Eggs). Still, it mainlines a heavy Dragonforce influence and runs it up and down the gamut, producing a very charming go at the genre that puts a lot of the efforts of some of the genre’s been-there-done-that acts to shame. Somewhere Back In Time is a passion piece that deserves to be heard, and so we are putting it directly into your ears to pep up your Friday as best we can. You may not like it now, but trust us, you’ll thank us for it when you’re older.