Sent By Ares "Ascension EP" Review

Genre: Progressive Deathcore / Metalcore

Year: 2011

Tracklist:

1. Parthenon (Intro)

2. Death Of Leviticus

3. Ascension (feat. Alex Mola Of An Obscure Signal)

4. Athena, Watch Over

5. Eschatology (feat. Brandon Collision)

6. Black-Walled Empire

7. The Final Apostale

8. Stargazers (Bonus Track)

First Listen Impressions:

Sent By Ares bring to the table a sound which would make the god of war himself proud - of course assuming such a god would listen to heavy music. This ticks a lot of the right boxes as it has the elements needed to make this kind of music stand out. Scathing vocals, Blistering Percussion & Riffs that are memorable but still tasteful and don't leave a sour taste in your mouth afterwards. Whilst it doesn’t make me want to go out and kill something (normally a positive thing in a review here), I still enjoyed it more than a lot of other stuff I’ve heard. For all intents and purposes, a great sounding band that I would like to see live as I think they would absolutely destroy – Much as Ares would have wanted.

3&3/4 stars (can I give out quarters of stars…?!!?!?)

Track by track:

1. Parthenon (Intro) – Where would we be if we didn’t have a huge breakdown for an intro? It can definitely be thought of as over-done, but I think it’s all about execution, when done well, it can suck you in and hype you up for the rest of the record – something that they pull off well here.

2. Death Of Leviticus – Beginning with blast beats and a technical trem-picked riff, this song is almost an extension of the hype up of the intro. The song as a whole has good feel, well paced and variety. It eventually comes to a panned intro (something I’m always partial to*) to a breakdown section which then leads you to believe it’s going for a very melodic part, but then just drops more brutality in your lap. Fantastic.

3. Ascension – A very killer song, laden with memorable riffs, melodic parts, great breakdowns and Alex Mola (An Obscure Signal) providing some guest vocals. I’m reminded of a few things with this track, but only in small dribbles. They haven’t ripped off these other bands (whom I won’t mention through fear of possibly offending some people) by any means, but there are hints of it in there. The ending has a lo-fi (*) breakdown, and an abrupt sample to round it off, but it works well!

4. Athena, Watch Over – Full of riffs which are fast and furious, this short but sweet track provides a lot of elements worthy of throwing down. Contains a beastly breakdown at a minute before the end that will tear your head off.

5. Eschatology – Promising “the end of the beginning” is a concept that a lot of bands have touched on & because of that, it may have lost some of it’s weight, but still cool nonetheless. Very cool patterns, riffs and hooks are found throughout this track which had me bobbing my head and tapping my feet to the kick patterns, which were occasionally present on their own (*). Ending with an epic breakdown + sweeping with delay is very cool and doesn’t go on and on like some others.

6. Black-Walled Empire – My stand out track. Heavily staccato-ed rhythms (*), 3/4 / 6/8 time signature, dissonant chords, off time china cymbal… It’s got it all (for me at least). Only problem with it, is it’s a touch short… but that’s where my ability to restart it comes in handy!

7. The Final Apostle – Heavy Instrumental Outro is Heavy… They tune it all down (*) to G# for this one and play it nice and heavy, but also hold on to their melodic side. This one is a close second as stand out to me, only second because it’s an outro, so it’s not all that long, and winds down a bit however it still is a great track.

8. Stargazers (bonus, pre-production track) – For a pre-pro demo, this sounds great, killer riffs, a good indication of where they are headed. Looking forward to a full length!

* - All stuff, whilst some would say it’s been done a million times, I love a lot in music… An album could contain nothing but low tuned guitars, heavy use of staccato, Lo-Fi, panning and kick drums on their own during “guitar quiet parts” and I would be salivating like a dog.