Album Review: The Dirty Earth - Ascendancy

Autonomic, The Dirty Earth's first full-length, is a brooding coffee-on-a-Sunday kinda album.

While it would have been easy for the band to follow their formula from the 2013 Road To Ruin EP, they have instead opted for something much more uplifting and bright on Ascendancy. Mandy Newton's soulful wails and Raff Iacurto's scorching leads are transcendent, but the real heroes of the record are bass and drum duo Darren Staite and Leon Cadden. Cruel World's Sabbath-crawl will send chills down your spine, while Down To The River swells and blasts with passion. Fans of early Judas Priest, Janis Joplin and Led Zeppelin, take note.