Kadinja: Ascendacy

What do you get when you take a French Djent/Prog Metal band and add in the best bits of the first Periphery album, the greatness of Twelve Foot Ninja and the swagger of the U.K.'s Hacktivist? You get easily one of the front runner's for Djent/Prog Metal album of the year in the form of Kadinja's Ascendacy. This 10 track opus marks the first full length album from this French Progressive Tech-Metal band and boy do they nail it right out of the gate.

To put it quite simply, Ascendacy is a miraculous record and these guys (and girl) have just raised the bar for this genre. Songs are intoxicating with an uber high technical proficiency that melds Progressive music with imagination, exhilarating melodies and catchy hooks, as well crunchy and heavy riffing.

Ascendacy is filled with aggressive Djenty goodness, but is also filled with excellent clean vocals. Far more than a Periphery wannabe, Kadinja take the formula of the Djent pioneers to an entire new height. Fearless and masterfully, Kadinja incorporates complicated poly-rhythm's with fiercely melodic choruses that while, albeit complex, they fuse it altogether in an ambrosia that musicians and non musicians can equally appreciate. In other words, tunes on this debut are riff heavy, full of groove and with enough melody to still keep things easily digestible to the listener.

The opening track, "Stone Of Mourning", starts off with a great spastic intro that gives way to even more bombastic pulsating that leads up to melody and chorus that will simply get stuck in your head. Kadinja uses great atmospheric droning underneath all of the heavy grooving adds so much texture and tension to all of the other craziness that is going on over the top, it's just infectious. "GLHF" is another highlight on Ascendacy and happens to feature a stellar guitar solo from U.K. Guitar Hero and instructor, Rick Graham. Full of emotion and another killer melodic interlude, "GLHF" seems to pull at some heart strings, while all along pounding you with some twisty riffing. Not to be outdone, "Episteme Part II" , even has a bit of flavor of the brilliant TesseracT, quite thoughtful and ever expansive with more atmospheric sensibilities and an incredible sense of being. Very thought provoking, indeed. It is on their tune, "A November Day" where the biggest comparison to Periphery can be found. This excellent song bares a STRONG aural resemblance to Periphery's, "Jetpacks Was Yes", not the entire song, but enough for me to instantly say, "wait a second, I've heard this before" and despite the similarities, this is still a great song. One of the major differences between the two songs is how much BETTER the vocals are here than in the Periphery song. Anyone that loves Periphery but can't stand their vocals, will LOVE the vocals here with Kadinja, two fold more. Philippe Charny Dewandre's vocals are about 80/20 clean with some gritty taunts thrown in for good measure and he has a great melody vocal approach that truly helps sets this band apart.

This is now my first 5 Star review for 2017 and I haven't been able to stop listening to it (well in between listening to some classic Pat Travers Band!). Kadinja have crushed it with this, their first full length record, Ascendacy. It is Progressive, heavy groove, riff laden insanity, melodic and just flat out awesome. Musicianship is off the chart, with virtuoso performances all around (especially with the guitars) and the production is sonically stellar. Ascendacy is beyond an impressive and adventurous debut release that is full of masterful performances by Kadinja. With a full length effort like this, I can't wait to see what they deliver on their next release.

Kadinja
Vocals : Philippe Charny Dewandre
Guitar : Pierre Danel
Bass : JJ Groove
Guitar : Nicolas Hørbacz
Drums : Morgan Berthet

Track Listing

1. Stone Of Mourning
2. GLHF (featuring Rick Graham)
3. Episteme
4. Episteme Part II
5. 'Til The Ground Disappears
6. A November Day
7. Dominique
8. Ropes Of You
9. Bittersweet Guilt
10. Seven (The Stick Figures)

Added: March 1st 2017
Reviewer: Butch Jones
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 2085
Language: english

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