Review Summary: Despite a couple issues with pacing and some weaker tracks, Ascension provides the same high-quality songwriting we've come to expect from the band.
While it’s true that
Ascension has been on my Most Anticipated Albums of 2025 list, I’ve also been somewhat apprehensive about diving into it. The reason for this is simple:
Obsidian perfectly synthesises three decades’ worth of experimentation, filtering out critical elements that worked for preceding eras and constructing what is, arguably, the shrewdest and most comprehensive records of their entire career. The songwriting and pacing are so consummately pieced together, it was incredible watching a band this far into their career releasing such a monumental milestone – a record that acknowledged and embraced the past through modern eyes, giving the whole experience a celebratory feeling as you went through it. As a result of its broad, reminiscent influences,
Obsidian has a kind of conclusiveness to it, in that if the band were to have called it a day, it wouldn’t have been much of a shock. This was probably never the band’s intention, of course, but it certainly felt that way at the time, shovelling your jaw off the ground during the closing seconds of “Ravenghast” and pondering over where the hell the band goes from here. And here’s the thing – when you first crack open
Ascension and it ushers you into a world filled with pummelling doom metal riffs, catchy solos, gorgeous gothic atmospheres, and some of the most experimentally stimulating vocal performances of Nick’s career, all those thoughts quickly wash away. For a time at least.
Out of the gate, during the “Serpent on the Cross”-“Silence like the Grave” run of tracks, the album is firing on all cylinders: it’s replicating the
Obsidian formula of mixing various eras, but it’s adding enough fresh ideas and enthusiasm into the tracks (namely Nick’s disparate vocal approaches) to give it this ferocious momentum. Unfortunately, that scintillating, unfettered energy gets the wind taken from its sails once we arrive at the volatile second act of the record. It’s somewhat ironic that “Lay a Wreath Upon the World” is the impetus for this section of the album, since the song in question encompasses all the album’s worst traits. After a deluge of trouncing grooves, excellent guitar leads, and Nick channelling and displaying the gamut of his talents in just four songs, all of that hard work and trajectory is immediately gored and brought to a deafening silence once “Lay a Wreath Upon the World” enters the scene. Essentially, the song is a lethargic ballad built on haunting synths, a nondescript acoustic guitar passage, and a dull selection of melodies clunkily crooned by Holmes. It eventually builds to the fore with a brace of classic Mackintosh squalled guitars, but, regretfully, it all culminates into a rather tepid climax, and the worst track on
Ascension. However, the central problem with “Lay a Wreath Upon the World” lies in the fact it takes far too long getting to the point, tenuous ideas notwithstanding. Woefully this meandering songwriting bleeds into the next few tracks, albeit not to this degree.
The dip in quality during tracks six through eight doesn’t make the LP a dealbreaker, mind you, but the issue is omnipresent and hurts the album’s spectacular introduction. On the aforementioned tracks, in spite of their flaws, there are still amazing segments nestled in them, it’s just that they’re buried under anodyne, jarring or repetitive structures and weak melodies, making them hard to fully recommend in their entirety. “Diluvium” has a phenomenal ending, with the typically electrifying melodic-earworms Mackintosh is known for, but the
Icon inspired verses and chugging progressions overstay their welcome before we get to that cathartic final section, while “Savage Days” is a rather beige entry that doesn’t fumble as hard as “Lay a Wreath Upon the World”, but
Ascension would have greatly benefitted from its omission. Which is a good segway into the biggest issue I have with
Ascension: it’s encumbered with poor pacing and a bloated run-time. This is the longest album since 2005’s
Paradise Lost, and it’s sorely felt during the mid-section of the record, where I think a bit more fastidiousness with these tracks would have gone a long way. Thankfully, once we get over “Sirens” the songwriting gets more consistent and we get to hear fast-paced thrillers like “Deceivers”, “The Precipice”, and colossal epics “This Stark Town” and “A Life Unknown” to help bring the album to a satisfying close.
So yeah,
Ascension has its problems. It’s still a fantastic record with a lot of first-class material on it – Holmes’ vocal variety brings a lot of welcoming new energy to Paradise Lost’s perfected style, and
Ascension serves up another smooth cocktail of sounds from their past – but the wavering quality in the mid-section of the album diminishes the God-tier tracks in the first and final third of the album. It’s also worth mentioning that the absence of Waltteri Väyrynen on the drums is deeply felt as well. It’s no secret that Paradise Lost have a proclivity for changing out their drummers as much as I change out the oil in my car, but Väyrynen brought a particular rhythmic brutality to the songs on
Obsidian, elevating the songwriting and making it feel catchy, punishing and memorable all at the same time. On here the drums don’t really have much presence or personality to them, which probably would have helped the weaker tracks get over the finish line in a more engaging way. Still, blemishes and all,
Ascension maintains the band’s renowned standard of songwriting, it’s just that, frustratingly,
Ascension could have been a milestone album like
Draconian Times or
The Plague Within, rather than an excellent tier experience like
Medusa or
Tragic Idol, had a bit more thought gone into the second third of the album. Nevertheless, I’m splitting hairs with all this, because, ultimately,
Ascension is guaranteed to rub fans the right way, and it’s adventurous enough to open up new avenues for the future, and at the end of the day, what more can you ask for?
