Graveworm is a black metal group that has influences for Avant Garde, classical music and progresive metal. While not too terribly underground, they do seem to be highly underrated when compared to other acts of their time like Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, Samuel and Abigal Williams. All of which also share one of the non black metal traits up their as well. In this album however, the creativity level is over 9000.

Ok forget the last statement for the time being. Ascending hate was just released about a day or so ago at the time of writing this so it is probably the freshest from the oven in terms of when I'm reviewing this and compared to the album's release. They seemed to have put their best foot forward by having the epic come first. Doing this is not exactly the best however, but you can still do that if you truly wanted to. I don't really have any other problems than it makes the rest of the album a slight bit weaker and it's overstating your welcome a bit. The track in its self, Stillborn by the way, is a great track and can probably stand on its own pretty well. Then again, I love epics so I am partially biased so maybe it's just me. The rest of the tracks seem to follow the same spirit and alot of them succeed for the most part but none still as good as Stillborn(and I really need to stop the comparisons). There are some weaker tracks, particularly on the second half, but they are never bogged down to lower than below average. You also tend to hear what sounds like death metal vocals for most of the ride, it makes as much sense to me too, in other words, not at all. No matter, they do have some of the classic black metal standards like tremolo picking styles the drums are incredibly difficult, which shows how well the person plays more than anything, and of course, heavily distorted and somewhat raw energy like with the Norwegian scene in the 90s, especially bands like Darkthrone, Mayhem and Burzum. The grand finale, Nocturnal Hymns II, is a great way to end off the album in my opinion. Sure, it tries to cram as many elements from the previous tracks, much like Meshuggah's Elastic but less of the literal sense, and it could be a bit long, but the length is not an issue fo me especially because the last track is usually the one that ties up the album and is one of, if not, the longest track in the album thus you go out with a bang and you give the listener something that is satisfying and rewarding if they managed to get to the end of the album. It's like a Beethoven or Vivaldi recital, you make the most epic and lengthy track last to grant the most emotion and biggest wow factor. They are not the only bands that know how to do that thankfully. Enough rambiling, now it sounds like a rant, Nocturnal Hymns II provides with a satisfying end and a great way to finish off the album, it's only up to you if you want to disagree but that's my opinion. There are segments in this album that could be replaced or maybe cut entirely, thankfully that isn't much of it so give credit where credit is due. I would like to see them again in the future.

I give this an 8.3/10. Not my traditional scoring tactic, but I have to be a bit more accurate than normaly here. Thanks for reading and I'm the Grim Reaper, signing off.