ALBUM REVIEW: Crimson – The Wandering Ascetic
Hailing from an often overlooked corner of the world, Singaporean quartet THE WANDERING ASCETIC have been honing their craft for six years, following the release of their 2013 debut EP. With a wealth of experience coming from vocalist Kathir and guitarist Vinod Vaskaran of the incredible RUDRA, THE WANDERING ASCETIC hinted at an impending full-length album with their inclusion on Transcending Obscurity Records 2018 label sampler with The Will To Live. Now, over a year after their appearance on said compilation, they are set to release their debut album, Crimson – also through Transcending Obscurity Records.
THE WANDERING ASCETIC launch into Crimson with, arguably, it’s strongest track. With Eva Braun, we see the band at their best, drawing on Kathir and Vaskaran‘s influence with RUDRA-esque blackened bastardisations of Eastern melodies really lifting the sound and giving the track a unique feel – something we see peppered throughout Crimson, such as Beast Of Burden and Orang Laut. Bursts of thrashy aggression, tempo changes and an excellent vocal performance from Kathir make this a strong start – but unfortunately things just go downhill from there, and not even the rare brilliance of The Will To Live, The Exorcism Of Mrs Doe nor Assassins can really set Crimson back on track.
Songs with incredible potential that devolve into recycling the same riff for much of their run time ultimately give Crimson an unfinished feeling that is hard to shake. I Sing The Body Electric never really progresses past the intro, and unfortunately the blinding solo work just after the half-way mark fails to stop the track from embodying the unfinished vibe, and feeling drawn out. The Gods Bleed! suffers the same problem – the base heavy intro, throaty chanting and blackened melodies bring the promise of something special. But it is a broken promise, with what should have been a short intro dominating the majority of the track, and the rare bursts of riff work unfortunately just aren’t good enough to save the song.
The trend of wasted potential sadly continues into the second half of Crimson. To Hell, Back, And To Hell Again… has a more simplistic, hard-rock swagger to it and another dose of excellent solo work, but throughout much of the song there’s a hinted promise that things are about to step up into more aggressive, thrash territories, and it unfortunately never materialises. Here For The Good Things meanders through it’s 4-minute run time with little variation and a lack of attention-grabbing moments, while album closer Orang Laut again squanders it’s potential, and the brilliantly sinister melodies and vocal delivery fail to give the track the ability to hit home in the way a closing song should.
Throughout Crimson, you can really hear the influence of RUDRA – particularly from their 2016 opus, Enemy Of Duality. This, unfortunately, is a double edged sword. When Crimson is at it’s best, the blackened death metal style of RUDRA is totally present, while mixing it with rawer, more thrashy tones and enshrining the fact that, for all their similarities, THE WANDERING ASCETIC is it’s own entity. Unfortunately, these moments are few and far between, with much of Crimson swaying between THE WANDERING ASCETIC failing to properly convert the RUDRA influence into their own style, and the record simply sounding unfinished. That said, there is a lot of potential on display across the record, and a few dazzling moments of brilliance. But there is something missing throughout THE WANDERING ASCETIC‘s debut – it’s not entirely obviously what, but until the quartet put their finger on it, the potential on display with Crimson will continue to be squandered.
Rating: 6/10
Crimson is due for release February 12th via Transcending Obscurity Records.
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