18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE BEGINNING........., May 13, 2005
This review is from: Ember to Inferno (Audio CD)
OK, I admit, I bought Ascendancy first, and after falling in love with it, I had to get Ember to Inferno. At first, I thought it was good, but not great. After many listens, I can add this to the list of my fave metal albums of all time. The on difference between this and Ascendancy is that this has more of a metalcore feel to it, while still maintaining the thrash elements and melodic sensibility that are the trademark of Trivium. Matt Heafy's voice sounds a little different, with his growl being less powerful and his clean voice not as polished. He really sounds like Hetfield during the clean passages though. I'll give a quick track by track rundown:
1. Inception the Bleeding Skies- 8/10 an instrumental, sets you up well for the rest of the album
2. Pillars of Serpents - 9/10 does not have the trademark Trivium sound, but a VERY heavy song. Brutal riffing and mostly growled vox
3. If I Could Collapse the Masses - 10/10 - classic metalcore sound with Gothenburg riffing, love this track
4. Fugue (A Revelation) 9.5/10 - this song grows on you, great melodic parts in it, disjointed sounding verses
5. Requiem - 10/10 - the catchiest song on the album, you will love it first time through, beauitiful guitar sound
6. Ember to Inferno - 9/10 - great tune, similar riffing to fugue, great chorus
7. Ashes - 9/10 - second instrumental, very creepy feel to it, very ominous
8. To Burn the Eye - 9.5/10 - what an incredible piece of sonwriting, this one clocks in at 7 minutes!!!! keep in mind, heafy was 16 years old when he wrote this!!!!
9. Falling to Grey - 10/10 - wow, just awesome, memorable chorus, memorable riffs
10. My Hatred - 11/10 - best song, opening sounds like Creeping Death, leads to thrashy sounding riff, incredible vocals, such emotion behind it
11. When All Light Dies - 9/10 - good closing song, I like how it ends
12. A View of Burning Empires - 8/10 - final instrumental, approximates the final riff on prior song
Overall, you can feel that this is a bit of a theme album, relating to the destruction of man, and a cataclysmic event destroying our world. They lyrics are poetic, and the whole album has an epic, dark feel to it. A must have for fans of Unearth and All That Remains, but far superior to work either of them has done. BUY THIS ALBUM!!!!!
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cool, but repetitious, March 6, 2006
A Kid's Review
This is a pretty worthy listen for those into speedy metalcore with fast paced screaming and some melodic breakdowns. Just like your typicial metalcore band, except a little better. Heafy's singing voice is not as whiney as, say, Atreyu. For a debut attempt, they've done a good job.
The problem with this is a recurring flaw found in many albums in the metalcore genre. It's monotonous. It's repetitious. And it lacks creativity to a certain point. The riffs are very fast and catchy. The solos are pretty cool too, and the double bass drumming is a great display of technique, but...it's all the same. The album is almost viewble as one long song, because regardless of the melodic breakdowns, the each song picks up from where the last stopped.
However, with only one major setback to this production, this is definitely worth listening to. It's excellent ear candy, but I recommend listening to it in doses. This is not the album you want in your cd player on the "repeat all" mode while cramming for finals, because it gets repetitious after a while. I don't want to say that, after a good long listen, it's "boring," per se, because it's not. It's just the opposite. Boring would be due to lack of speed and repetition, but this just gets a little annoying after a while.
Hope this was helpful.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The young know what metal is too!!! \m/ >.< \m/, March 9, 2005
This review is from: Ember to Inferno (Audio CD)
These guys blew my mind away. How can a band composed of kids produce such a heavy and technical sound. I bought their cd after seeing hearing them on Headbanger's Ball and have since loved every moment I put the CD in the disc player. The only problem I have with the band is that the singers screams are very monotonous and doesn't have any highs or lows...just stays the same....like Lamb of God's singer. He does a great job on melody though. I'm giving them 5 stars because I can't believe these kids were able to accomplish this at their age.
Word of Advice: Don't listen to this while driving ><. You might get a speeding ticket.
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