"Great female-fronted progressive power metal": A review of Divine Ascension's "Liberator"

Ladies and gentlemen!

It's been a while since my last review on this blog. I've been quite busy over the past six weeks. I had a lot of work to do towards the end of the school year during the entire month of June. Since then, I've had lots of activities with friends from Canada and Germany, with my family members but also on my own including the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, rafting trips, concerts, festivals and musicals and more. I still had the time to discover some new and rediscover some old music. If the weather conditions aren't too rough (it's currently twenty-nine degrees which is very hot for me), I might write a couple of reviews over the next few weeks again. I would like to start with an Australian progressive power metal sextet called Divine Ascension. The group's last effort is called "Liberator" and this release is a true grower with great melodies and stunning musicianship. I hope you enjoy my review and the music. Keep in touch with my blog over the next days to discover more interesting film and music reviews and some special stuff I've been thinking about for a while.

Enjoy your summer and take care!

Sincerely yours,

Sebastian Kluth  

Divine Ascension is a progressive power metal sextet from Melbourne, Australia. The female-fronted group was founded back in 2007 and has released a demo and two studio records so far. The band will be on tour with Gloryhammer and Stratovarius next autumn which might kickstart ist career. The group's two official releases have already received a lot of positive reviews from the underground. The sextet's latest output "Liberation" was released last year and offers eleven melodic power metal tracks with minor progressive influences that clock in around sixty-four minutes.

The first thing that stands out about the band is female vocalist Jennifer Borg. She has a controlled, grounded and natural voice that recalls vocalists such as Delain's Charlotte Wessels. She also seems to be influenced by female rock and pop vocalists of the eighties such as Samantha Fox or Jennifer Rush. Her powerful vocals break with the usual angelic operatic genre chants. Her performance is energizing, catchy and easy to digest and should therefore appeal to a larger audience and especially to those who are usually having troubles appreciating female-fronted metal bands due to the high-pitched singers. Stylistically, she isn't a far call away from the underrated Magali Luyten.

The musicianship is also quite strong on this album. Most of the songs have a mid-tempo base that gives the different instruments their time to shine. Sometimes, the progressive or symphonic keyboards take the lead, at other times the guitar riffs add some heaviness to the rather soft and commercial sound and even the rhythm scetion around bass guitar and drums fills a few breaks and transitions. The diversified opener "Dawn Brings No Mercy" showcases the band's whole talent in six and a half minutes. Musically, the band is inspired by both symphonic metal acts such as Epica, Visions of Atlantis and Xandria but also by more progressive genre bands such as Edenbridge, Krypteria and Seraphim.

On this record, the band offers three kinds of songs. The first category is composed of more progressive tracks with pace changes and extensive guitar and keyboard melodies. The title track "Liberator" is a good example since it starts with a progressive instrumental section of almost one and a half minutes. The verses are quite slow and feature simplistic guitar riffs while the choruses are much faster and melodic. The heavier middle part is dominated by an extensive keyboard solo, symphonic elements and a short bass guitar break. This tune represents the technical abilities of the band quite well without sounding pretentious.

The album also features an elevated number of catchy tracks with gripping choruses. The band definitely has the potential to get some radio airplay and become the next big thing in its genre with some more exposure. "The Final Stand" is maybe the best song of this category. The up-tempo track opens on a gripping note leading to heavy yet soothing verses before the passionate chorus erupts in an epic fashion to stay on your mind for quite a while. Despite its catchier and straighter approach, the song still features technically appealing instrumental sections for progressive metal fans and a short atmospheric middle section for the symphonic power metal audience. Even the more commercial tunes on here are far from being bland.

The last kind of music is best represented by "Sorrow's Sacrifice", a calm and soothing ballad carried by emotional vocals. The track is accompanied by decent keyboard orchestrations and slow melodic guitar riffs. The catchy chorus goes back to the second category and underlines the band's capacity to merge different approaches, genres and sounds into something catchy, coherent and fluid.

There are only two slightly negative aspects about this release. At first contact, several tracks sound a little bit exchangeable, predictable and repetitive and need several spins to open up in their fine differences. Apart of this, I'm also missing a truly outstanding song. The record features eleven good to great tunes but there is no unique masterpiece on this release that enthusiastically grabs your attention form the beginning to the end. The song writing could be even more refined and to the point on one side but I'm also missing an initiative to try out new and courageous things in some tracks. Divine Ascension is a band of incredible potential but they are still in progress of finding their very own style.

Despite these minor criticisms, Divine Ascension's "Liberator" is a technically appealing, stylistically diversified and musically gripping release with an epic touch for progressive power metal fans. My personal highlights are the powerful vocals, the futuristic keyboard passages and the flexible guitar play that are accentuated by a fresh and modern production. This Australian sextet has all necessary components for a potential breakthrough in the next few years. Keep this band on your mind and give this record a chance.

Final rating: 9/10

Please support the band and check out the following links:

Bandcamp: https://vicisolumrecords.bandcamp.com/album/liberator

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/divineascension

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/divineascension/Videos