?Classics? of power metal #15: PALADIN - Ascension (2019), upon further review

I just accomplished a major - task? challenge? - today*, and wanted the sort of song that proverbially makes me want to run through a brick wall.  At the moment I can't think of a better candidate than "Awakening."  Talk about propulsive.  Listening to the chorus reminds me of exactly what power metal does well.  Ye gods, do I ever feel like my dreams and memories will be immortal when listening to the song.  Since this band shamelessly writes songs about Chrono Trigger,*** I'll say that they've given me the metal equivalent of the Chrono Cross intro****, mixing adventure and wistfulness into one.

So as the killer riff of "Divine Providence" started around listen #5 or so to Ascension, I finally sorted out why, listen after listen, I was having a hard time maintaining interest in these songs all the way through.  Because so many of them are so clearly good stuff.  At first I thought maybe they lacked hooks, and I was annoyed that I couldn't remember how songs went.  That ain't it, upon further review.  The hooks are there and they land as hard as the truly powerful riffs.  Then I thought I was getting tired of the record because of the saminess, but it's not like the recurrent types of sounds used here lack variety.  There's more variation between songs than on, say, Death Or Glory by Running Wild, and I ended up ranking that one 4.5 out of 5.  It's actually way simpler than that.  I was tuning out the same spot in every song: the guitar solo.  As established many times, I'm not a big one for long flourishy guitar passages, whereas on Ascension song after song they're hitting me with a tasty one to two verses and choruses, and then going into a mid-section, and then throwing in a weebly extended solo and I'm out until Taylor starts singing again.  It's frequent that Paladin opt for two components of a guitar solo where one would do.  Couldn't you play the main riff more under the solo given that you have two guitarists?  Maybe smoother transitions into and out of the guitar noodling would make it work better for me?  Or maybe if more of them were as arresting as the one from "From From Grace."  But that's going to be my least favorite part of nearly every song here.

So why am I, a non-fan of guitar noodling, listening to power metal, of all subgenres?  Well, listen to the rest of any of these songs other than the solo.  Like 80% of each track is so fucking good.  They start by occupying that very fun space of taking a brawny aggressive approach to metal that I've so enjoyed throughout this series***** and then Taylor (again, I assume he's doing most of the singing) just goes to town.  What he lacks in actual vocal range with the clean vocals he makes up for in cadence and diction - he knows how to pace a phrase like "just cast aside your fears and seize the day!"  The blackened-thrash snarling is a delightful bonus that just keeps things interesting, but the songs that're pure power metal with all clean vocals show that Paladin don't even need that.  These songs take the listener on a journey.  Should out again to "Call Of The Night" which, besides being incredibly catchy, makes death's embrace sound as epic as the quest in "Awakening."  

The back half of the record shakes up the formula a bit.  "Shoot For The Sun" strips the complexity down to deliver one of their most straightforward Accept-esque rock songs, marred only by the fact that after a cool riff-forward languid solo, they then throw in an unnecessary more standard guitar solo before finally getting back to the song.  Should've been an even shorter quick-hitter.  Meanwhile, closer "Genesis" is their attempt at a longer song that doesn't follow the usual verse-chorus structure, building the second half of the song around a very cool riff not present in the first half as it guides the listener through grandiose ambitions and confused uncertainty in equal parts in both the words and the back-and-forth riffs.  This taste of songwriting ambition is just so much more interesting to me than hearing how many notes they can fit into the guitar parts.

So that's where I am with Ascension.  I wish I could appreciate the lead guitar work more, but I'll just live with the boring parts when the record is doing so much else right throughout.  Fun listen overall, thoroughly glad to have discovered.

Other thoughts:

- I think part of the reason these choruses land so well is that Paladin are masters of the ascending note at the end of the phrase.  For examples of how good that can sound to the ears, listen to the way the pre-chorus of "Awakening" ends, or even better, the "falling from grace, gone without a trace" part from "Fall From Grace" (the "dis-GRACE!" tag is just a bonus after that, but I'm all for it.  What a cool song!).  Or, for an example in the guttural mode, the half-step up followed immediately by another half step up that gives the end of the "Dawn Of Rebirth" chorus so much punch.  

 

- Meanwhile, I think part of what I like about Taylor's delivery on some of those higher notes is that it sounds like he's pushing against the edge of his range - quite possibly a deliberate vocal trick rather than actual straining - but doesn't quite crack, and only tries to hit those big notes when the rising action of the song calls for it.  That's what I was trying to get at when I talked about "conviction" in the last post and tried to explain why Paladin are able to pull of a level of sincerity and fantasy-themed lyrics without them ever registering as "cheesy" for me.

- If some mad scientist can come up with a way to combine Lovebites' ability to attach a bright melody to a powerful metal song with Paladin's ability to make an already powerful song heftier, we might have the perfect band.

- I get that there are multiple reasons why it's not practical for a relatively obscure band from Atlanta who don't make a living wage from music to record or tour much.  I just consider the world as a whole lucky to get what it got from Paladin.

 

Favorite track:  "Call Of The Night"

Runner up:  "Awakening"

Least favorite track:  "Bury The Light"

Rating:  4/5 

Will I come back to Paladin?

Well, they'd need to release more music.  Hopefully I get a chance to see them at Mad With Power this year.

Things I learned about power metal:

- It's not the size or range of the voice, it's how you use it

- On a purely riff level, power metal and thrash metal are more similar than they are different

- I'm really enjoying this niche from the last two bands I've covered.  Modern sounding metal that splits the difference between USPM and EUPM, where heaviness and melody coexist.  

 

Next:  From a record to band of the same name!  A relisten to Ascension's Under The Veil Of Madness, whenever I get around to it!

*as of drafting this part of the post.  Maybe I won't finish it today.**

**Done!

***maybe I'm primed, but even the songs that aren't "Black Omen" find time for CT-coded lyrics like "destruction rains from the heavens" (from "Divine Providence")

****One narrative that's taken hold amongst a certain subset of Chrono Trigger fans is that Chrono Cross allegedly not only disrespects the first game, but unceremoniously kills off the entire main cast.  In actuality, with one exception (and of course you don't see a body), the actual fate of the CC characters is quite ambiguous in CC.

*****What's sad is that going all the way back to the Running Wild review, I, someone who has no interest in enforcing any kind of conformity to stereotypical gender roles, keep wanting to describe the weight of the music that keeps it from feeling wimpy as having "balls."  I think when that most masculine of bands, Lovebites, are one of your prime examples of music with "balls," that's a clear sign that you need a better word.  The best I've come up with are "grit" and "edge," so I use those terms a lot.