ANCESTRAL - The Ancient Curse

\r\nANCESTRAL is an Italian quintet and this is their debut full length album being finally released by Underground Symphony after its previous postpone, originally it was planned to come out last fall 2006 but several technical reasons delayed the release to almost a year afterwards. Their music features pure heavy/power metal in the vein of old BLIND GUARDIAN and old HELLOWEEN while there are moments some thrashy cuts here and there slightly bringing to mind the groovy sound of ICED EARTH. The nine tracks of the album bear a great amount of both speed and melody with plenty of blistering solos, solid riffs, engaging dynamics and a beautiful and vivid sound. The guitar attack is as fast as it is technical with a strong sense of melody and a well worked musicianship. The drums are hard and speedful with a convincing technical prowess while the vocals possess a very good power vibe, both soaring and aggressive and at some points with a slight touch of rawness. Τhe lyrics deal with epic, war-like themes while there is also a cover on Beatles’ "Eleanor Rigby". I should say that the music of ANCESTRAL approaches mostly the old school sound of the primitive atmosphere of the ‘80s than the more modern arrangements of the Euro power metal of nowadays. Totally ambitious though, even if they don’t present anything new or prototype which is and the only drawback of this effort. Other than that the production is pretty good and “The Ancient Curse” is an album that will please all fans of power/speed metal.\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\nVaso "Necromass" Prassa \r\n

\r\n