The Ascent & The Hunger Review

I get really astonished on how bands are recreating Metal golden era with fresh and exciting albums as “The Ascent & The Hunger” from Palantyr, formerly known as Destrukt until August 2024. Palantyr also solve a problem many bands cannot, that is, to give their music taste, to sound as if they were from that epoch, to give blood, sweat, and tears to their music to make it sound even better than the originals. Easy task? No, not at all, even more in a time AI is here to polish everyhting, to take away all human factors from music. “The Ascent & The Hunger” sounds as fresh as it can do. Thanks to the incredible Athéna and her magic voice.

Besides the incredible Athéna and her magic voice “The Ascent & The Hunger” does not have a lot to surprise the fan, and, for my surprise as well, this is the best thing of the album. Pure Speed Metal with a female voice giving it lots of melody, the melody that lacks in most Speed Metal albums. That’s the best thing of the album combined with the raw infusion of sharp guitars and fast drumming. Take the seven minute “Son of the White Mare,” for instance with its long melodic break where the guitars shine with beautiful leads and Athéna‘s almost classic singing. The perfect combination of the raw, the beauty, and the speed. “Ravenous“ commences just the opposite way with a classic acoustic guitar strumming that goes to a cadenced guitar riffing with very simple phrases that leads to a very known guitar riff, that, still, sounds very well giving, again, Athéna the chance to shine. It gets even better when the tempo speeds up. It reminds me a lot Warlock from 1985’s “Hellbound” era with our queen Doro. A big highlight to Palantyr‘s cover on Paul Roland’s “Nosferatu.” The grand finale is the right-in-the-face “Graveyard“ Speed Metal hell as hell.

With no shadow of doubt “The Ascent & The Hunger” is a Speed Metal album inspired on the classics of the subgenre. The surprise is with the incredible Athéna and her magic voice that gives the album its shinning moment.

Palantyr “The Ascent & The Hunger” was released on April 02nd via Jawbreaker Records.

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