Divine Ascension
As the Truth Appears
Rating
Style: Symphonic/Progressive Metal
Release date: 11 October, 2011
Playing time: 50:05
 

Not the first new female fronted symphonic/progressive metal I've come across this year, the success of their European counterparts have resulted in a lot new bands turns to this style. Divine Ascension is however the first to hold the banner high I've stumbled across from down-under.

Divine Ascension is fronted by the powerful voice of the theatrically trained Jennifer Borg, and her voice is up there with her peers like Anette Olzon (Nightwish), Floor Jansen (After Forever) and Sharon del Adel (Within Temptation) and she does thankfully at no point turn to the over-the-top operatic style that is an almost given in this genre. Her voice compliments the music very well and delivers an outstanding job.

The music is a nice mixture of symphonic metal (Nightwish, Epica) and progressive metal (old Queensr˙che) with a few gothic elements thrown in, and while the technically level is high and the deliverance is strong, it never really breaks out of the box to become something special. The music flows nicely along but it never makes me stop and think; "Hey wait a minute!", it stays on the safe path...

Not a half bad album, plenty to build on and a solid effort from Divine Ascension. But I hope they'll think outside the box for the next album because this is a tick too safe to really impress the common metal fan.

Good one!


Tracklist

01. Answers (5:04)
02. Visionary (4:23)
03. In My Mind (4:40)
04. Vision Divine (5:47)
05. Guided By Osiris (6:25)
06. One Last Caress (4:28)
07. Garden of Evil (4:47)
08. Another Battlefield (4:42)
09. Civilisation (4:28)
10. Unscathed (4:57)

Label: Nightmare Records
Distribution: Nightmare Records
Reviewed by: Kenn Jensen
Date: 9 October, 2011
Website: www.divine-ascension.com