Released By : Self Released
Genre : Hard Rock
Links : http://www.myspace.com/descendantband
Tracklist:
01. Dance with the Devil
02. Sins of Youth
03. War Machine
04. Never Say Goodbye
05. Bloodust
06. Before My Time
07. We Are the Night
Don’t be mistaken by the excellently airbrushed blonde babe with a dagger and crossbow on the cover artwork for this album, DESCENDANT are NOT a power metal band. A quick glance at the cover would have you believe that they must be, but if you look a little closer, the crossbow actually has what looks like compartments for bullets, made more evident by the fact that the chick is holding an ammo belt. Coincidentally enough, this confusing amalgamation of old and new does a pretty good job of representing the oddness of the music held within its sleeve.
PASS THE AMMO is a mixture of classic sounding heavy metal, modern hard rock and grunge that is very rock based but has a slightly harder edge that gives it some metal cred. You may think that trying to merge all of these styles into one would end up sounding a little underdeveloped and messy, and unfortunately you’d be right. Look, when the band are on, they do kick some serious ass, which is made evident in WE ARE THE NIGHT. The reason for this song standing out to me over the others was funnily enough the fact that is probably the most straightforward hard rock track on the entire album. While the band spend the entire album trying to hit a successful formula, as soon as they go back to basics it all just sounds better. If you want to get an idea on the stark contrast between the bands good side and their not so good side just compare WE ARE THE NIGHT to the ordinary sounds of BLOODLUST, which I swear sounds like a grunge band trying to cover a symphonic power metal song.
I really don’t like to criticize bands that make the effort to send proper copies of their albums out for reviewers, especially those like DESCENDANT who make the extra effort with great press kits, but I have to call it how I see it. Unfortunately I just can’t totally recommend DESCENDANT knowing full well that they are struggling here to find themselves an identity. What I can do however is at least steer a few people in their direction as they do have some redeeming qualities and show that they may just have something special in the future if they can just get the identity issues sorted out. I do however think that this would be a good band to see in a small venue packed with around 400 to 500 people, so by that account I’d recommend to go and check them out live if they are playing near you.
Written By ZeeZee
Rating : 6/10
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