Ancestral Legacy Nightmare Diaries
by Alissa Ordabai
Staff Writer
Slick, knowing and somewhat predictable – this is the way in which Ancestral Legacy are continuing to mine the lower depths of their trademark genre which mixes pop, metal, and electronica to a vastly uneven result. Only too aware of how absorbed explorations of the darker side of goth metal can alienate a wider audience, on their third studio release they sugar-coat their clear-cut tunes with sweet, syrupy vocals – straight out of the Eurovision terrain – but do it with such brazen confidence that you have no choice but follow this well-trodden path and marvel at the band’s artisan skill and rationality.
Far being from a miscalculation, Elin Anita Omholt’s vocal delivery is a conscious strategy geared to ensure Ancestral Legacy’s more universal appeal. Growling vocal parts by Eddie Risdal and Tor Arvid Lasersen’s racing barn-burner guitar leads are meant to serve as a balance – dark and edgy to stand out against the sleek and sweet – but more often than not are too formulaic to serve as a strong enough juxtaposition.
Still, a gift for writing a perfect melody and to create dramatic, sprawling harmonic landscapes cannot be spoiled by camouflage and calculation, and this is what makes standouts like “Chosen Destiny” shine with an intense, enigmatic light against the banality of more streamlined tracks. Here the bombast and the direct, straight-forward approach to composition are redeemed to the full, showing that assured stance and conviction are indispensable in taking a certain kind of band onto a higher plane.
To sum it up, Ancestral Legacy is a strongly poised, highly professional band who know what they want and how they are going to get it. They know how to invent, polish and put to use a formula, but at the same time how to breathe real life into it, to make a simple modus operandi inspire both themselves and their listeners, and to do so while not shunning the shortcuts and clichés. Less practicality, more experiment, and a great deal more courage would do wonders in turning Anscestral Legacy into icons of their genre, but for now slick far too often turns into slippery, and slipping up is not the best way to ascend to stardom.
Genre: Gothic metal
Band:
Isadora Cortina – vocals
Eddie Risdal – guitars, vocals, synth
Tor Arvid Larsen – guitars
Anton Dead – bass
Christopher Midtsveen Vigre – drums
Track Listing:
1. Out of the Dark and Into the Night
2. Separate Worlds
3. Chosen Destiny
4. Perhaps in Death
5. Trapped within the Wind
6. Done
7. Still
8. Tomorrow’s Chance
9. … My Departed
10. The Shadow of the Cross
Online: http://www.ancestrallegacy.com
Hardrock Haven rating: 6.5/10