{"id":96449,"date":"2022-09-30T00:00:56","date_gmt":"2022-09-29T23:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=96449"},"modified":"2022-10-26T16:49:12","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T15:49:12","slug":"ep-review-ascend-zero-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/ep-review-ascend-zero-hour\/","title":{"rendered":"ASCEND &#8211; Zero Hour EP (2022) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"title2\"><strong>ASCEND <br \/>Zero Hour EP<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" height=\"3\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"title3\"><span style=\"color: #c80000;\">Self-released (2022)<\/span><br \/><strong>Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"image floatedright\">\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" width=\"10\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ascend_zerohourep.jpg\" height=\"200\" width=\"200\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<div align=\"left\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"right\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>There\u2019s something stirring at the moment in Serbia, a metal scene that wants to be heard, and Ascend is the latest act to emerge. The band consists of Marko Kujund\u017ei\u0107 (vocals), Aleksandar Blagojevi\u0107 and Luka Mari\u0107evi\u0107 (guitars), Igor Jovanovi\u0107 (bass) and Mihailo Vujovi\u0107 (drums), and <em>Zero Hour<\/em> is the combo\u2019s debut EP. <\/p>\n<p>This five-track offering is a crisp, melodious and decidedly epic heavy metal opus with a swift, fluid guitar tone and some excellent soaring vocals.<\/p>\n<p>After an intro (\u2018Ascendency\u2019) we get treated to four solid anthems. The relatively short \u2018Into The Midnight\u2019 gallops along nicely with its solid percussion and axe wizardly which brings a sizzling solo, and from here it\u2019s all killer no filler.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Elan Bite\u2019 has a gritty introductory fire reminding me of Judas Priest, while \u2018Reminiscence\u2019 is subtle and evocative. The latter builds to a steady fire and again showcases the fabulous guitar work. Strangely there\u2019s a British feel to proceedings, although my only criticism are the extra more extreme vocal barks which I don\u2019t feel are necessary for a band of this ilk.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Breaking Away\u2019 rounds the EP off and is the most vigorous track on offer, but again it just beams with a melodious cocksure swagger. It\u2019s certainly not the throwback rock I was expecting. Instead, Ascend is very much a contemporary metal act boasting crystal clear vocals and an all-round energy and freshness that can only bode well for the future.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ASCEND Zero Hour EP Self-released (2022)Rating: 7\/10 There\u2019s something stirring at the moment in Serbia, a metal scene that wants to be heard, and Ascend is the latest act to emerge. The band consists of Marko Kujund\u017ei\u0107 (vocals), Aleksandar Blagojevi\u0107 and Luka Mari\u0107evi\u0107 (guitars), Igor Jovanovi\u0107 (bass) and Mihailo Vujovi\u0107 (drums), and Zero Hour is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5073],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-ascend"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96450,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96449\/revisions\/96450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}