Despite writing tunes that seem to hail the end of the world, it’s the start of a new world that’s gotten Perth metal band THE ASCENT excited.

The foursome is launching its debut LP ‘Inception of Salvation’ on February 26 at the Rosemount Hotel, as well as releasing the album nationally the same day. Vocalist / guitarist Chris Hurrell tells Space Ship News the 11 songs on ‘Inception of Salvation’ continues on a theme from the band’s 2009 EP ‘Where Are Your Heroes Now?’

“The idea was we released an EP at the start of last year with the theme of the end of the world, this one was to carry that over, it’s about the salvation,” Hurrell says. He and the boys (lead guitarist James Clarke, bassist Alessio Ricciardi and drummer Travis Kapor) learnt a lot from the making of their EP and this showed on Salvation, he adds. “It’s getting to where we want to be as a band and musicians, we’re definitely proud of what we have done.”

Learning from their previous recording experience, The Ascent knew it had to improve its sound on Salvation and so enlisted the help of Aidan Barton from Sovereign Studios. Barton said it was important for the band to learn from their experiences if they were going to challenge and entertain not just the audiences, but themselves.

According to Hurrel the band is continuing to try and bridge the gap between many metal genres, so as to not polarise their fan base. “We’re exploring different avenues of writing and we all have different musical backgrounds, so it’s not just straight up death metal or anything.”

Check out The Ascent at the Rosemount Hotel on February 26, supported by Pyromesh, Red Descending, Ill Vision and Surrender.

Interview by Kaitlyn Offer

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