From northwest england, below the highlands, where the wind blows cold but the hearts are worm with joyfulness and inspiration, ascends a five piece rock act that in their own uncompromising way created a very interesting set of musical pieces. first things first, and before we go any further let me introduce you to these 5 very experienced gentlemen.
Darrel Treece-Birch, well known for his work playing keyboards with the british hard rock act TEN, started to brew some material in his spare time along with his long time friend and drummer, Craig Walker about five years ago, in 2009. Then came another friend to help the songs take shape and expression, Alan Taylor the vocalist. And then another friend joined in to give it a rocking sound, guitarrist Martin Walker, who by the way, is father to Craig And Gavin, this last one the bass player and the final piece to this project. This almost comes as a family business, and we might call it so, since they know each other for a long time. They are all experienced musicians in the british musical field.
NTH Ascension is a new project and "Ascension of Kings" their debut. Although they have already released a EP, "Frequencies of Day & Night" in late 2011; this is in fact their first album.
I hate to name influences, and when i refer to some artist or band, it's because i want you listeners to place yourselves in an invironment closer to the correct one, and if i can make you do that, well, happy am i for express myself in a way that everyone understands. The reason i don't like to do this collages comes with NTH as the perfect example; these guys have been around and they really know what they are doing, so it would be unfair to label them as followers of someone elses ideas. Nowadays, with almost everything invented we must agree that everything sounds like,... everything else!
When if first started to listen to this album i immediately rejected some comparisons that i read in their press release. And why was that? Well, Alan gives the direction in wich we should focus; he is a soft Bernie Shaw, so Uriah Heep (Bernie's era) is a very good direction for this musical endeavour. Alan's vocal expression tends to the vibrato in the likes of Bernie, Roger Chapman or even Fish. I call this kind of singing "in dolore"; because it seems like they sing with pain or in pain. Then the keyboards struck me as a jean Michel-Jarre driven. If you can imagine this mix, we can go from here. Rock or to be more precise, soft hard rock, melodic, symphonic and progressive. This kind of progressive way that NTH plays is a very light one, very melodic and very joyfull to hear; this music is so easy! With majestic keyboard effects sounding like inmense landscapes, these tracks progress to a cinematic stage, where i can see just by hearing; isn't that the perfect music or what!?
As soon as you get inside this album, you understand that this is a one man's ideal. And reading some more about the band i find the answer; Darrel brought the guidelines to the rest of the boys and they all worked around it. Darrel had already written the track "Vision" back in '91.
We have here a 8 piece record and about 57 minutes of delightfull music. Five songs vocalized and the other three being instrumental. In a very british tradition this kind of release goes straight to the plains where Asia, Marillion (fish's era), Uriah Heep, Mike Oldfield, Jean Michel jarre, and some others roam.
"Vision" is an inmense song, not because of the it's 18min. lenght, but because of the instrumental lines that join some spacequests with an arabian flavour of mistery, very sci-fi. And speaking of fiction, this record might give you the conceptual idea. It isn't totally wrong, but only part of it is. The Clanaad Chronicles, an idea developed around Narnia\LOTR concept is a story that will have it's development in future releases, in this release we only have 3 parts.
Another interesting fact is Gary Hughes, the voice of TEN, that performs the backing vocals and was the engineer that recorded the vocal parts. Not strange the fact that Darrel and Gary are in the same band for this matter. Impressive keyboard work by Darrel by the way.
Along these amazing visual musical pieces we can find many images of some other artists like Fish and his Marillion era, some Pink Floyd words or some Tony Banks (Genesis), reflections, but for what it matters, this is a very professional work, greatly crafted and with it's own identity. This record wasn't meant to reach the best selling tops by it's commerciality, but to be recognized for it's quality, entertainment and contemporary reach.
This isn't a release for all audiences, it has it's specific kind of followers, although i sugest that everyone should listen to it. This is music; not to rock your socks off, thats for sure, but to place you in dimensions of your mind and soul that you never reached, or want to live in.
Ain't the best of productions, but the work is so well crafted that we barely notice this. Maybe in the next release they can offer a more pristine work in the final mix, because this music is awesome, it should be presented in schools for the young ones to first know and learn about good music before they diverge to the bubble gum scene.
I'm very impressed!!! Congratulations are in order. Hope to hear so much more of this in the near future.
By McLeod!Tracklist:
01. Fourth Kingdom - 6:24
02. Return Of The King - 3:41
03. Strange Dreams - 7:30
04. Overture (Clanaan pt 1) - 6:12
05. Realm With A Soul (Clanaan pt 2) - 3:52
06. Seventh Rider (Clanaan pt 3) - 4:02
07. Weight Of The World - 6:44
08. Vision - 18:43
Line-Up:
Martin Walker - Guitars
Gavin Walker - Bass Guitar
Craig Walker - Drums and Percussion
Alan 'Spud' Taylor - Vocals
Darrel Treece Birch - Keyboards
Don't you forget it, if you like it, Buy it!
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