Terminal is Ancestral Legacy's second album. Four years have gone since the release of Nightmare Diaries, marked by some line-up changes in which the Norwegian band sound more as one. Four years during which a new singer, who'd already made an apparition in 2010, has made her imprint on the new material. Four years without a rest, between the constant writing of new material, hard studio working, waiting for mixing and mastering overseas - done by Jone Vaananen who's worked on Insomnium and Inkuinen Kaamos - and for new label opportunities. A signing with the newly started local label Whispering Voices Records granted the band with an immediate release of what they had on the heart.

Ancestral Legacy obviously has loads to deliver. Terminal goes right to the point on each and every track, with an urge present from «Bone Code» to «Terminal». The band being highly inspired by Opeth, breaks are an important means of creating variation in their relatively long tracks. The sound doesn't always render the dynamics of the music, making it more linear and foggy than what the band can deliver live. Especially if Ancestral Legacy as a live band let themselves establish the atmosphere before hell breaks loose, if they take their righteous place onstage and open up for each others impulses, a more organic version of the band will soar, and perhaps it will also be heard on studio works in the future. I other words, Terminal shows many good ideas and song parts, but sometimes they'd break too mechanically, and their combination with the cold and foggy mix functions sometimes but not at length. Again, the alternative is you'll be lulled into comfort by this record.
When it comes to the vocals, the same could be said. Isadora sings soft, accurate, through the whole record. I hear her voice has evolved since she was a guest on Nightmare Diaries, but, perhaps due to a common choice in the band, her vocals stay on an airy level, cute and proper, so you'd have to hear her live to experience the full range of her voice and persona.

All in all Terminal is a fall pearl, a varied, harmonious concept piece, in the track of the musically progressive, lyrically doomish tradition of the band since their debut in 1998.

If you get what I mean out of listening to Terminal and if your way crosses Ancestral Legacy's on tour, go and check them out, you'll definitely get a new experience of the band.