Preston’s Ascalon are a heavy metal band, which first released a track on a split album from 2012. Four years later they put out the excellent 5-song Reflections EP and unfortunately nothing else until now. I was surprised to read about the forthcoming release of their long-awaited full-length debut The Black Library, more than eight years after the mentioned EP.
The new guitar player Craig Devlin has joined Matt Gerrard (vocals, guitar) and Vince Scott (drums) for this nine-track, 36-minute old-school metal celebration. After a short instrumental intro, Thousand Guns sounds like a meat-and-potatoes ordinary heavy, with nothing especially worth noticing, but the tittle song, which comes next, doubles on the melodicism and introduces some very good harmony guitars. Event Horizon is once again unspectacular, but the following No Worlds Left To Conquer is much better, with a strong Maiden influence in the melodies structure and a wonderful guitar solo to round it off.
The production sounds a bit muffled and lacks color and power and that is a shame, because songs such as All Empires Fall could gain a lot from an improved mastering. It is the album’s centerpiece, with an epic atmosphere and memorable riffs.
Staff Of Stars and Eye Of Horus are speedier numbers, more straightforward, yet forgettable, with Eye Of Horus being the better of the pair. Edge Of The Rainbow suffers from a bland and slightly off chorus and the song is not saved even by the next great solo, because the chorus is repeated several more times, ruining it completely.
I have to be honest and admit I feel a bit disappointed from The Black Library, because it is an album, which only partially fulfils the expectations. There are some songs, which are well elaborated and composed, with some attention to detail invested too, and then others sounding like a rush-job and filler material. Maybe another EP with the best songs would have been the better decision here, but Ascalon still show they have potential and I hope we won’t have to wait another eight years for the next release.
6,5/10
The Black Library is out on March 28th and can be ordered from HERE
