Sunday, April 24, 2011

ANCIENT CREATION – Moonlight Monument CD review


ANCIENT CREATION – Moonlight Monument CD
Heaven and Hell Records
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 5/5

One of the many great things about America is that on any given night you can drive into some non descript burg, find a local watering hole that still has live music (preferably Hard Rock or Metal) and on it's stage you'll see a band like ANCIENT CREATION. Yes that is a complement because this band represents all of those working class metal musicians who are die hard in their faith to playing great American Metal any time and anywhere. This is straight up Heavy fuckin Metal "dude" like it was played before by bands back in the late 70's/early 80's before all the trends and genres took hold. ANCIENT CREATION hail from Kansas City, Missouri, which is a place hipsters would call "fly over country", but straight up Metal fans and labels like Heaven and Hell Records know that the US heartland is a hotbed of horned fist activity. The band started out eight years ago, went through some line-up changes (don't they all) and have stuck it out to release one helluva release. This is technically their sophomore release. Their debut, Evolution Bound came out in 2007 on Melissa Records and like I said the band made some changes in order to fulfill their vision of putting out an epic release.

If comparisons are needed then this band reminds me in some way like the Michael Schenker Group or even a little Yngwie Malmsteen. Guitarist and band founder Peter Nisenkier has a similar playing style as those two in that his solos are fast, fluid and technical. The songs have that progressive touch which is inviting especially with cool sounding intros to a few cuts which don't sound "obligatory". Steve Bentley is the type of vocalist who sounds like he stepped out of a time tunnel from the late70s/early 80s. His singing on here is simply phenomenal, he's never that over the top power vocal style. In fact he sounds like he could've sang in an early 80's Thrash band. The rest of the band play their musicianship parts to perfection. Moonlight Monument in deed, this is simply a solid release from beginning to end. It's one of those releases where there's no standout tracks that take your attention away from the whole body of work. This is one of those that you put on and enjoy.

Label: http://www.heavenandhellrecords.com


Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/ancientcreation

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