Ascension “The Years of Fire” CD

Perhaps lesser-known during the "holy terror" wave of the 90's, Ascension (from Cleveland, OH—probably the "holy terror" capital of the world simply due to Integrity's presence) was another band whose relationship to hardcore was fairly minimal from a musical standpoint, as their riffing was very directly influenced by straight up thrash metal—while still retaining a certain level of that undeniably effective 90's chug. And believe me, they more than earned their status under the "holy terror" banner through a raging assimilation of awesomely apocalyptic artwork, bitter lyrical themes, and even by quoting Anton LaVey on the back cover of this CD, "The Years of Fire", which was their 1996 debut. While both of the band's records were great, there's a certain level of unhinged energy and aggression on the debut that always stuck with me a little more, and the opening track, "Transit", is an outright fucking classic—easily the band's finest hour. Seven tracks, barely under 30 minutes... they just tear through and leave it at that. It's a quick listen, but one that still deserves a nod even today.

The putrid hate encompasses a million bleeding eyes, This is your way to kill the face of decay, With wounded lips, no voice will carry. And to the grave, corruption will take the blackened souls away. Wrapped up in the beautiful cedar boxes. The force had its way. Pollution of body and soul, the whole world is dying. Pollution of moral sin, there is no denying.

Ascension guitarist Matt DeVries and bassist Jason Hager later went on to Chimaira (though Hager only played on their first EP), while the latter is currently in a band called Years of Fire with former Ascension frontman Chris Wood (though I actually haven't really checked out their record yet). "The Years of Fire" is of course out of print, and Toybox Records doesn't even exist anymore, so... sadly the CD seems rather tough to come by these days. It does still seem to be available as a 10" from Interpunk, though, and you can find their sophomore full-length, "Abomination", on Amazon.com (incorrectly credited to the band name "This Ascension"), among other sources.