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)
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Heretic Melodic Death Metal
SUNCINDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like A Life Vest As The Night Wept Mathcore
FRONTIERER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Future Ghost - Wolves (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Future Ghost - Nemesis Game (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 3 days ago
Sunmancer - Realms of Dilemma (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
Sunmancer - Lower Cavalier (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed