DESCENT started in Dallas, Texas in the early 2000’s and nothing much has happened at the time other than a few house parties shows for friends and family.  DESCENT was a creation of 2 friends, guitarist Mike Ames and drummer Brian Knox that shared their love for heavy music and skate to create the band of their dreams. Unfortunately, the band disbanded in 2002 and everybody went in different directions and even different styles of music. Nothing was heard from the band until 2018 when Mike Ames decided to put the band together again with new members. Unfortunately the drummer at the time passed away while they were recording their new material and this was the catalyst for Mike Ames to reunite with his old pal Brian Knox getting the original duo back, with the addition of Dylan Pike on the guitar and Jamie Rodriguez on bass.

They have recently released a 4 song EP named Far From Glory that consists of their old compositions and new ones re-energized for today's listening. The EP was self produced and self mixed by the band and I like when this happens. No interference from anywhere. The album starts with “Suffered Reminders” and it is a kick in  the balls. Pure violence and energy. You have traces of Thrash, Hardcore, Grindcore, Punk and every other style of in your face music out there. Incredible energy and some great guitar riffs. We follow with “Far From Glory” that keeps the energy high. You can notice the great drum work from Brian Knox making the drums  sound fat in the mix and plenty of double pedal madness. The band has incredible energy that will definitely create mosh pits live.

The next one is “Paper Cut Throat” and the riffs are creative and very heavy but the band takes a completely different approach on this one. The song has a softer melody with a more defined and non aggressive vocal, however the heavy goods are not far away and the band delivers a face melter chorus. The song is a good mix of heaviness and extreme heaviness. The bass of Jamie Rodriguez pierces the mix filling the empty spaces and does not follow the guitar riffs religiously which is good news. We finish the EP with “Asshole”, my favorite of this release. Despite not having histrionic guitar solos in this EP, the work of both guitar players Dylan Pike and Mike Ames is very solid and the riffage creation is great. This last tune also mixes clean vocals with good gritty and raspy screams and I believe singing with that much energy and playing guitar must be exhausting for Mike Ames. Despite being a short release, the band shows incredible potential and I would love to see a live performance to feel if the energy in the recordings will be the same live. Think about SLAYER and BAD BRAINS had a baby...