From Hell - Ascent From Hell
Metal
Scourge Records
Posted 1/12/15 - 10:00 PM ET
From Hell has crafted an epic, dark, bone crushingly heavy concept album in Ascent From Hell. Each song is a full narrative; monologues, dialogue, narration, different characters... this is a true story telling concept album. It is well done and well constructed in the lyrical narratives and sung dialogue from beginning to end, and tells one hardcore story that would make a hell of a horror novel or movie! Each song plays out and feels like a chapter in an epic journey through a zombie filled hellscape of nightmares and an even darker slice of earthly life, a spiritual amalgamation of Marvel's Ghost Rider, The Exorcist, and Dante's Inferno without the satire... but on crack with a black metal soundtrack! The story told through the album is as follows, "The corpse of a psycho killer wakes up in Hell and finds out he must go back to earth to find his soul that still lives on inside the body of a priest and drag it back to hell."
The album may be a bit much to take in for one sitting, with almost half of the songs on the ten track album being close to ten minutes; but if you're either a black metal or a horror fan, count on getting sucked into hell for the Ascent From Hell.
Pacing is pretty typical for a full length black metal outing, but as stated composition is solid, very heavy thrash influenced sound; the concept album mold is broken with the aforementioned monologues, dialogue, narrative, and especially for cohesion in the story these ten songs tell together. Musicianship is rock solid, this band is a well oiled machine (not surprising since this is a metal super group) on Ascent From Hell and while certainly not for everyone, I recommend checking them if only for this album for a study in modern concept albums could and should be. If horror, monsters, demons, and bloodshed are too much for you... skip this album and go back to safe, shopping mall friendly, bubblegum pop.
Track List:
- Standing at the Mouth of Hell
- The Walking Dead
- Soul Crusher
- Psycho Killer
- Eyes of My Dead
- Nun With A Gun
- The Church
- Dead Reckoning
- Ascent From Hell
- The Sleep