Deadly Blessing - Ascend from the Cauldron (New Renaissance) 1988

1. "Search and Destroy" (4:37)
2. "Salem's Lot" (4:23)
3. "Escape the Wrath" (3:39)
4. "Cry of Medusa" (4:27)
5. "Deliver Us From Evil" (5:04)
6. "Silent Madness" (4:31)
7. "Mindbender" (5:11)
8. "Deadly Blessing" (4:07)

In the mid 80's I ate up just about anything that New Renaissance Records released. Among my favorites was a band called Cerebus. Had I known about Deadly Blessing at the time, I think they may have been my favorite from the label. "Ascend from the Cauldron" is a fantastic, old school, heavy metal album, that occasionally borders on thrash and speed metal. One of the standout features in this band, is the siren howls of vocalist Ski. His high, smooth voice is one that I can only imagine would drive most fans of modern metal up a wall. He has a similar quality as John Arch (ex-Fates Warning), although he most certainly has a style and charisma that is all his own. Musically, imagine an album like Fates Warning's "Spectre Within" combines with the aggression and metal enthusiasm of a band like Nasty Savage or Helstar and you might get a picture of what to expect here. The songs are somewhat complex, yet not overly so. However, this is one of those albums that will take more than one listen to totally ingest. Galloping riffs, power chords, shredding guitar solos, pounding drums, soaring vocals. It's real metal baby!

As with most of the official New Renaissance Records re-releases, "Ascend from the Cauldron" was released in a limited, numbered edition. Mine is #681.

Temple of Blood covered "Deadly Blessing".

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