Hello Metalheads! This is John back with another album preview! This time I have the latest installment from Zac Leaser. His new EP is called Ascension to Light and it comes out on March 7th, 2025! The EP is Zac’s 7th album and is 21 minutes long and jam packed with great material throughout.
I’ve been listening to Zac for a few years now with his solo work and his other project Ritual of Decent. He seems to always be in the realm melodic death metal with touches of technical death metal(Tech death) and progressive metal. This is a great blend that he executes to a great degree with every release. This latest release does not let up on any of those areas at all and keeps his momentum going. I remember a Facebook post he put out of a riff from this album a while back that had the caption “counterpoint riffs are cool” he packed plenty of those into this work!
Zac does every single instrument in his solo project and in a fantastic way! His drumming is programmed, but very appropriate and seems reasonable. I say this because I feel as though sometimes programmed drums are so unrealistic for a human to play at times. But he does an excellent job! His vocals are primarily mid range but occasionally branches of with some high or low pitch vocals as well. They are consistently very good. Even the bass in his songs is a bit lower in the mix but still audible and very good playing!
Into the Void is the first track on the EP and it really surprised the hell out of me as the introduction section ended. It starts with a dissonant and angular riff that just sounds annoyed and pissed. The blast beats and gnarly guitar creates this really chaotic sound that gets broken up with agitated guitar and chugging guitar under that. The vocals during the break sound like pitched screams, then before we can catch our breath a nice melodic section starts. It has a really nice change that almost has a thrash undertone. This then changes to a segmented riff with a choral sounding vocal parts. There is an absolutely wild solo section at the 3 minute mark that is straight up tapping it sounds like. This over the absolute blast beat drums is so impressive. The background is long stationary chords.
Needless to say this is a fantastic addition to this already stacked year of music. Ascension to Light is an easy 9.5/10 in my thoughts. Zac did an outstanding job as I have come to expect on just about every aspect of his music. I look forward to his next EP from Ritual of Decent coming out later this year as well! Ascension always don’t forget to give his socials some love And stream the music or even buy it! All links will be provided below!
https://youtube.com/@zacleaser?si=2J6bsTu9-R5X_rhf
https://www.instagram.com/zacleaser?igsh=MWd3bjVqaXY4cXRmcQ==
https://www.facebook.com/share/18fzvuVJo5/?mibextid=wwXIfr
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/zac-leaser/1108548850
https://zacleaser.bandcamp.com/album/ascension-to-light
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1r2iRSK4LfdRWC6mAlb4Wq
Ascension to Light by Zac Leaser
