Coming from Parma, Italy, singer Dorian bones, formerly of The Wraiths Orchestra, offers a decent slab of Prosciutto between early Danzig and archaic Doom approximately between Saint Vitus and Electric Wizard. What Caronte (named after Charon, your favourite ferryman across the Styx) have in common with the latter is their grainy, reverb-laden sound – which actually mars the experience of „Ascension“ quite a bit.
Since Dorian sound a lot like „Evil Elvis“ himself, his voice would deserves being embedded more prominently into the mire cooked up by guitarist Tony and bass player Henry. As it is, tracks like the opener „Leviathan“ stay in your head mainly due to the vocal hooks, yet you have to listen to „Ascension“ attentively in order to get them. The frontman's lamento in „Ode To Lucifer“ may be worth a few spins, while the instrumental background isn't. „Sons Of Thelema“ sees the singer in a more aggressive mood, but the other musicians simply fail to live up to his expressiveness. Consequently, „Horus Eye“ is the weakest track, as it comes with only a few passages of singing.
„Black Gold“ doesn't sidestep the issue of rhythmical monotony either, while finally, the six- and four-strings succeed in creating some sort of ambience with at least a bit of harmonic interplay. „Solstice Of Blood“ trips its own shoelaces and falls on its face right away: fuzz-bass in unison with the guitar is what you get here, „acoustic indifference „adorned“ with sampled voice.
After „Navajo Calling“, a positively (for a change) hypnotic ending with chants that probably refer to native American tribal singing, it is obvious that Caronte, respectively their mastermind, should keep singing only and entrust capable, creative musicians with building a fundament for his vocal potential to unfold.
words : Andreas Schiffmann
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