  
These Manchester based progressive rockers have
brought some much needed honour back to the British
progressive metal scene. This debut full length
album is ram packed full of intricate riffs, mesmerising
shifts in vocal work and a range of heavy tones
waiting for any metal fan to whip their hear and
necks around to. Whilst a range of different influences
have quite clearly been drawn – most notably
Opeth, Mastodon and sometimes hints of Dream Theater
– they use them to produce their own distinctive
sound as opposed to ripping off songs by each
band which happens a fair bit these days.
Should you ever be presented with this album “Spiral
of Ascension”, the name Spires for a start
isn’t really much of an initial hint at
the style and neither does this really nice piece
of art that graces the cover, but once you’ve
listened to even the opening track “Equilibrium”,
those 6 minutes piece everything together. That
particular track has very complex guitar work
and is primarily a downright metal track but never
fear, the talent isn’t just pinned to their
heavier side, oh no; “Symmetry” is
a break from the chaos with 4 minutes of gentle
soothing guitar tones and shows that no matter
what the pace these guys can produce something
beautiful.
With me however the initial task of looking at
their longer songs like “Broken Hourglass”
or the title track “Spiral of Ascension”
both of which hit the 14 minute mark, but again
both of which are full of the good stuff. They
keep you interested because it always spirals
off somewhere new and interesting and instead
of urging to skip you find yourself awaiting the
next instalment.
I will come clean, because of the amount of CD’s
I get sent that vary in style and sound, I do
now and always have initially judged CD’s
by the band’s name and the cover art. When
I got this in a batch I left it till last because
I wasn’t expecting the content to be so
incredible, I was expecting some really slow depressing
gothic natured stuff but instead I’ve been
given some of Britain’s best prog metal.
If you’re a fan of interesting guitar work
and complex structures, get this album and look
forward to the next!
4.5/5
Review by James Webb
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