US Heavy/Power Metallers ANCIENT EMPIRE present a remastered expanded edition of their 3rd album “The Tower” from 2017, complete with bonus tracks!
Hailing from San Francisco, California, ANCIENT EMPIRE have been a consistent presence regularly releasing albums since 2014 up to 2021 making a total of 6 in that relatively short time. Up for examination here is their 3rd album “The Tower”, with all tracks remastered plus bonus tracks recently released via Stormspell Records.
Upon listening to both the remaster and original release, which was only put out in 2017 I am struggling to see why a remaster was required… the original still sounds good and 6 years between them isn’t a huge amount of time to warrant a reissue, but anyway on with the review!
The first thing that hits me straight away is how massive the production is. Everything sounds loud, but retains the clarity needed in this type of metal – power metal. The guitar tone in particular is really heavy, and combined with the outstanding drums it produces an absolute wall of sound that took me back a bit. Good start!
First track “The Tower” kicks in after a short melodic intro, and instantly reminds me of NOCTURNAL RITES, with a speedy attack and aggressive drums throughout. Triumphant choruses and headbanging riffs bordering the line between thrash and power metal. 2nd track “Endless Curse” is a slower track, with a truly infectious main riff a la ACCEPT and some nice melodies in the guitars and vocal lines. It leads away into an epic solo, with lots of room for the notes to breath. “View From Up Here” has a building intro culminating in a stompy downpicked heavy verse and cool chorus – the vocals have a decent amount of grit to them which compliments the tough riffs.
“In the Land of the Damned” is an ambitiously long track steeped in melody and hooks, which results in unconscious headbanging. The midsection here really shines through with some amazing lead work and furious riffing, without ever losing the melody. “The Battle of Stirling Bridge” changes the tone significantly, with a bass guitar intro, synths and a “stand atop a mountain” lead giving way to some great thrash riffs – gallops aplenty and uplifting lyrics, very RUNNING WILD! “The Darker Side of Midnight” follows the same theme as previous tracks, with a melodic intro paving the way to thrash verse and classic metal sounding chorus, which repeats until the solo / midsection before closing out. “Yesterday’s Hero” thunders on with a sense on immediacy, with a driving riff that never eases in its attack. This track in particular is very 80s sounding, nice and straightforward with trading twin guitars and very metal.
“Dawn of Forever” starts like the classic ballad you’d expect on an album such as this, but doesn’t waste any time getting to the metal. It storms on with a pedalling riff encapsulating a sense of darkness as well as overall uplifting feel, it’s a good balance that the band maintain throughout the album. “The Last Sunset” is the album closer (bar bonus tracks) and is another bombastic track, laden again with hooky melodies and those classic metal riffs we know and love. The solo section here is rather noteworthy, sounding more like an excerpt from a virtuoso’s solo album such as STEVE VAI or SATRIANI. The three bonus tracks “Surrender to the Void”, “The Lightning Storm” and a live version of “The Battle of Stirling Bridge” top off this release.
Conclusion
This remaster boasts an extremely meaty production which I don’t feel was truly needed, but still it’s a good thing. The music itself is masterful, albeit somewhat generic in its structures – each track follows the same formula of intro, repeated verse / chorus and midsection then verse / chorus repeated to close out. This led to an overall safe listen, but didn’t detract from the metal hooks on show here. The barrage of double kick and precise riffing, bolstered by a guttural bass line that punches through and topped with decent and often charismatic vocals makes a nice slab of heavy metal.
THENWOTHM Score: 8.5/10
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2SyKRjEB5mZpPhWQxJlSfK?si=tIPds2sdTfKGBXuw920qNQ
The Nwothm 
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