Ascension Theory - Regeneration
Nightmare Records
Progressive Metal
10 songs (46'54)
Release year: 2004
Ascension Theory, Nightmare Records
Reviewed by Ben

When someone tries to describe music to me as Progressive, two things come to mind. The band is either very technical and dense, as in Zero Hour or Power of Omens or they are more along the lines of trying to make Images and Words part II, like Vanden Plas or Pagans’ Mind. Ascension Theory is surprisingly though, comparable to neither side of the fence. If I had to relate Regeneration to something out there, the closest I could come to is Andromeda’s Extension of the Wish. Both albums are undeniably prog, and yet they break all the rules of Progressive Metal as neither one is over fifty minutes long, there is only one song on each that is over eight minutes, each song has a strong and obvious chorus. Musically though, Ascension Theory is a lot more heavy metal than Andromeda ever were. Take a look at the opener, Warriors (despite the title, no this is NOT a Power Metal song about the knights of the woods), after the blatant Scenes From a Memory –isms in the keyboard work the music breaks down into a heavy Savatage styled riff and is then overlapped by the vocals of Leon Ozug. There is something about his voice that is very pleasing to the ear, he has a warm, rich tone to him that doesn’t require any straining at all when he reaches out for the high notes.

Some of the songs here have a very hard rock feel to them as well, Pieces being one of them. It begins with an electronic vibe and then seamlessly goes into a passage that reminds me of the whole 80’s rock bands genre. In fact, every song on here has that hard rock feel to it, which is mainly because of Leon’s voice. Seeing as this is a two man band, him and Tim Becker who plays everything but guitars, he has a lot of weight to carry with his throat and he does it quite well. The other half of the team, Tim does a great job on the keys with spacey atmospheric parts, some intense dramatic cinema score-like passages, to gentle and soft piano without sounding over the top or cheesy. In many instances the guitars take a backseat to the keyboards when the time calls for it.

For a project band, Ascension Theory sets the bar a bit higher than one would think. As opposed to most projects, this doesn’t come across as tired, rather it is one of the more enjoyable discs released in recent times that can have the Progressive tag slapped on it. If you are like me and love Progressive Music that is tastefully done, do yourself a favor and check out Regeneration.

Killing Songs :
Warriors, Pieces, Sleepers, Regeneration
Ben quoted 81 / 100
Other albums by Ascension Theory that we have reviewed:
Ascension Theory - Answers reviewed by Marty and quoted 75 / 100
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