Local boys Ascalon are heavily indebted to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. They are decent enough musically and roll along with an Iron Maiden/Angel Witch style groove and energy. The singer's voice is just about good enough to service this style of music although his attempts at a high pitched scream are ill advised as he hasn't really got the range to get there. The anthemic 'Ascalon' slows the pace down a little and comes across like a slower 'Wrathchild'. They make a decent fist of covering Judas Priest's 'All Guns Blazing' although again the high notes are ill judged. The galloping final track is great fun.
Aggressive Perfector (or Aggie P as most here know them) play classic metal with a blackened edge.The overall effect is like Mötörhead mixed with Venom. The musicianship is top notch and there's tons of melody in the guitars. Tracks such as 'Denied By The Reaper' are just heads down heavy metal fury. Vengeful One' is more aggressive and is much more in the realms of blackened thrash. Everything they play is head banging, fist punching, adrenaline pumping excellence. A rip roaring 'Harlots Spell' closes the set in a fine fashion.
Phantom Spell takes us away from the '80s and travels further back to the '70s. Much more progressive and laden with keyboards, they hark back to the golden days of Uriah Heap. There are plenty of uptempo, driving classic metal sections to keep tonight's mainly trad crowd satisfied though. The terrific 'Evil Hand' is uptempo NWOBHM worship with some excellent twin guitar melodies and some great keyboard parts. The keys on the complex 'Seven Sided Mirror' hark back to the Deep Purple Mark III line up. The Jon Lord-esque keyboards are my favourite part of their sound and they are incredible on the soaring 'Palantiri'. The singer/guitarist Kyle McNeill has a great voice and the vocal harmonies with the keyboard player are excellent. One of the tracks has a Thin Lizzy feel and is great. Some of the songs are pretty lengthy but they still manage to retain my interest. All of the songs are progressive in nature but the light and breezy 'Siren Song' is where they go full on '70s prog rock. The last few songs are definitely proggier and the energy and momentum dips ever so slightly. Still a very good showing though.
Phantom Spell ****
Aggressive Perfector ****
Ascalon ***
No comments:
Post a Comment