Album Review: Tyraels Ascension – Hell Walker (Rottweiler Records)

‘Hell Walker’ is the debut album from Tyraels Ascension, the new band summoned into being by guitarists Sean Searls of Bury Your Burdens and Kevin McNeil of Deathbreaker. The album will be released on July 26th, 2024, via Rottweiler Records.

Metal and fantasy go extremely well together, and Tyraels Ascension are all too aware of this. Not just basing their album and sound in the world of the fantastical, but even releasing a video game called Tyraels Ascension: Hell Walker, which will, of course, feature the music of Tyraels Ascension. Now that is commitment and upon hearing this album, it’s clear that a certain type of game will fit this music nicely.

Hell Walker is all about the twin guitar attack and every single track sees some form of elaborate, thrilling, and intense guitar moment crop up. Yet, only ever in service to the song and while the biggest takeaway might be what the guitars do, the strength in his album comes from the overall heavy rhythms, brutish vocals, and big atmospheric feel. Tyraels Ascension are more than just a pair of banging guitars.

It’s time for a neck muscle workout so make sure you do some stretching before you even consider pressing play on Hell Walker. From the start, it’s a robust and relentless force of heaviness with The Prophecy, and things only get more intensely heavy from this point onwards. Descent, Architect, and The Dead Lights offering up the stuff of heavy metal dreams. Chances are, even with some serious warming up, you’ll still have significant neckache already.

One of two instrumentals, Prelude to War allows a momentary chance to rest, before the dynamism of The Art of War arrives and an already epic sounding release hits even greater heights with When the Hero Dies and Holy Fire. Tyraels Ascension continue to be thrillingly creative as the album reaches its latter stages. A very impressive accomplishment on a debut, but even more impressive when the immense soloing in Cutting Ties, and the chunky progressively tinged riffing of Twin Angels, are taken into account.

All this before Inferno comes along with its mind-blowing amplification, depth, and length to end things in an exceptionally insistent way. It might not be the actual last track, as that’s the instrumental outro of Time of the Witcher, but it’s a closing track if there ever was one. Tyraels Ascension throwing their all into a track that has crushing fast moments, epic head-banging moments, and massive melodic moments.

Hell Walker is one hell of a debut.

Tyraels Ascension – Hell Walker Track Listing:

1. The Prophecy
2. Descent
3. Architect
4. The Dead Lights
5. Prelude to War (Instrumental)
6. The Art of War
7. When the Hero Dies
8. Holy Fire
9. Cutting Ties
10. Twin Angels
11. Inferno
12. Time of the Witcher (Instrumental)

Links

Steam | Facebook | Rottweiler Records