Twixt Zero and Infinity

Crown of Ascension

Official Description

Xenoglossy Productions introduces CROWN OF ASCENSION, the new side project from A. White, primarily known as the mastermind behind the critically acclaimed black/death/noise one man band Vessel of Iniquity and the industrial/drone/doom entity Uncertainty Principle. The debut EP "Twixt Zero and Infinity" is a barrage of blastbeats and riffs that yet retains a strong space-y atmosphere through the large use of an odd instrument for black metal: the cello, which is sometimes the primary musical element, while guitars provide droning backdrops. Howling voices appear and disappear like a transmission from beyond. Eerie piano sections surface amidst the chaos. Frantic drum sections pummel away with no mercy. The result is almost 22 minutes of audial cosmic terror, sometimes reminiscent of extreme metal acts like Gnaw Their Tongues, Axis of Perdition and Portal.

My Thoughts

In 2021, I am going to try to give you an album a day to listen to. Each one will be an album that I enjoy enough to have in my collection. I’ll talk a little about the album, maybe the band (though I am notorious for not really caring too much about the people behind the music), and whatever thing(s) the album causes me to free associate or riff on.

Let’s start this project with one of the more interesting experimental black metal album of 2020, Twixt Zero and Infinity by Crown of Ascension.

Presumably named after a Magic the Gathering card, Crown of Ascension is a new project from Alexander White, whose previous work with Vessel of Iniquity and Uncertainty Principle (among others) are also worth checking out.

This is a solid, maybe even excellent, atmospheric black metal album. Riffs, drums, everything, is in the service of creating the atmosphere.

Ghostly shrieks soaking in a vat of reverb; cardboard gunshot drums; guitars and keyboards in sync, creating something that would be a great black ambient album by themselves; all these add up to a unique and cosmic ambiance.

Falling roughly into what I have begun to call the Void Worship style of black metal, this is an album of delicious sonic terrorism. Alternating waves of bowed cellos and maniac guitar buzz slide in and out of astonishing and pummeling drums. The standard “icy winter forest” atmosphere vibes give way over the course of the album to more febrile “cosmic horror in abandoned basement” feelings.

For Fans Of

• Arkhtinn
• Mesarthrim
• Ne Obliviscaris