Ascend
Ample Fire Within

THE REVIEW

Once upon a time, many years ago, there were a couple of bands that despite their quality went mostly unnoticed: Iceburn by Gentry Densley (shame on us! Not even one review on DeBaser, they deserved it!) and Engine Kid (which I actually don't know, but they were one of the first bands of the meritorious Greg Anderson, later in Goatsnake, SunnO))), and another thousand bands) that shared a Split back in 1994. From then on, their paths diverged, with Iceburn Collective heading into jazz-core, and various doom/drone experiments on the other side, until meeting again in 2008 to form this (super)group called Ascend, along with Bubba Dupree (previously in the unrecognized Void from Dischord), Kim Thayil (do I need to specify with whom he played?), Andy Patterson (drums), and Steve "Stebmo" Moore (multitalented neo-Earth member, here dealing with horns and the Wurlitzer organ).

The proposal from the bearded duo and their collaborators places itself on drone/doom/ambient tracks, but it differentiates from the canon with a Blues inspiration (detectable, for example, in Thayil's unsettling guitar in the midst of the driving drone of "VOG"), the use of a very slow and deeply somber but prominent voice in all proposed tracks (in "Divine" it seems like hearing a Tom Waits under opiates, accompanied by Moore's trombone and piano) and the sonorous "surprises" like horns, organs, and funeral march cadences ("Dark Matter", the best song of the batch along with the previously mentioned "Divine": the organ+trombone+drone effect is hypnotic and very particular).

The impression derived from the extenuating listening of this record is that the project is an experimentation capable of pushing the "Lord of the South" dronemetal in a decidedly psychedelic turn (possibly post-hypnotic suggestions, but I even find traces of the most spatial Pink Floyd), in a catacomb version of a gospel for lost souls, in a metallic and suffering mantra (someone even suggests an improbable crossover between OM and Melvins) that cleverly mixes the heaviness and repetitiveness of the guitars and the distortions derived from Sunn O))) with jazz composition suggestions, very complex and stratified sonic textures, and a blues soul that perfectly combines with the cultured and experimental Sludge of Ascend. A proposal, therefore, that stands apart from the risk of stasis inherent in drone music and is recommended to all listeners (willing to lose a few more decibels of hearing since the listening experience should be strictly on headphones and at a "majestic" volume) of this type of music (personally, I consider it one of the essential releases of extreme music in 2008).