Stygian Ascent
As with a lot of bands, the story of Stygian Ascent began with a couple of guys yearning for a life around music.
Late autumn 2011, Bill, Sebastian and Josef took the step, and formed a band. The sub-genre wasn't decided, but they agreed that they wanted a heavy, melodic sound.
Bill (vocals/guitar) first got into music in his early teens. Although he started off playing the drums, his interest and passion for guitar eventually got the better of him. He left his drum kit behind to fully focus on mastering the guitar. He also quickly developed an interest (and talent) for various techniques of growling, as well as powerful clean vocals. As of today, Bill Yllner writes most of the music and plays and records all guitar and vocal tracks for Stygian Ascent.
Sebastian (drums) first learned to play the drums at the age of 12, at a local music school. The regular and rather linear lessons left little room for creativity, and a year after starting out, he decided to go his own way with his music. Sebastian plays and records all drums and percussion for Stygian Ascent.
Bill and Sebastian were first introduced to each other in spring, 2011, by Bill's brother, Axel, who was a childhood friend of Sebastian's. They toyed with the idea of playing some music together, but that quickly sparked a burning passion for both of them to start creating and playing their own music. Some time passed, and not much happened, but later that year, early autumn, they wanted to get serious. With Bill on guitar and vocals and Sebastian on drums, they only needed a bassist.
Josef (bass) met Sebastian in high school, where their mutual passion for music quickly had them become close friends. While he had always seen drums as his primary instrument, Sebastian suggested he turn his focus to bass, and in doing so, becoming the final forming member of Stygian Ascent - so he did. Along with doing extensive work on touching up and finalizing the lyrics that the band work on together, Josef plays and records all bass for Stygian Ascent.
A few months after forming, Stygian Ascent had a couple of songs in the works, and decided to record a demo of one of them (The 23rd Psalm) in a local studio (SoundpeaQ, run by Petri Kuusisto from Carnal Forge). A full weekend was spent recording the demo, and after receiving great feedback, the band was very satisfied with the result of their first recording.
The band continued to work on additional material, and in autumn 2012 they were ready to record their first album - Memories. Again, the band contacted Petri at SoundpeaQ, and scheduled some time in the studio. Stygian Ascent spent a long time recording and polishing the new tracks, along with a new version of The 23rd Psalm, and were, again, very happy with the final result.
''Memories'' was released March 6th 2013, and was met with a great response from people from many different countries and genres of music. The album received a 5/5 rating in a ''Skullbanger Media'' review.
Critics wrote:
"‘Memories’ contains 5 songs, all together making it to 30 minutes of pure and talented melodic death metal. This is exactly the main reason why I love Swedish music: they just know how to do it!''
"Songs that are results of careful composing and hard training. They make me bang my head in my living room, playing my air guitar and singing along, even though I can't sing"
"The stellar songwriting that ties this band together helps to prove that Stygian Ascent are ready to take over the international scene."
"In conclusion, Stygian Ascent is a magnificent band who have released what will probably end up being my favorite melodic death metal album of 2013."
"Stygian Ascent pulls you into their beautiful music and does not let go. Memories is one of the most gripping albums to come out of the Swedish scene in recent years."
Links to reviews:
http://skullbanger.net/2013/03/17/music-review-stygian-ascent-memories/
http://twoguysmetalreviews.blogspot.fr/2013/03/stygian-ascent-memories.html Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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