When an album doesn’t leave a huge impression on you either way, it can subsequently be quite difficult to adequately sum up. Ascension Lost by Thulcandra, the black metal outfit’s third offering, is alright but it doesn’t exactly blow you away.
All the songs are well constructed, the sound quality is great, and there’s no doubting that the band members are all musically talented – especially in the guitar department, because Ascension Lost features plenty of excellent solos to whet your appetite. However it all just feels rather generic and lacks that special something that blows you away and makes it a piece to remember.
The raw materials are certainly there for Thulcandra to create an almighty offering and you can really see the potential in some of the songs. Exalted Resistance features a furiously energetic drumline that cannot be faulted, and opener The First Rebellion showcases some wonderfully complex guitar lines that weave in and out of the main song idea.
Overall, Ascension Lost just doesn’t quite have that ‘oomph’ to it. It’s a good album, but it doesn’t quite manage to be a great album – quite simply, it’s just an average album that provokes no strong reaction in either direction.
5/10
