Last summer I made a diversion on a business trip North via the home of Metal, Birmingham of course, to attend a Sirius Promotions gig featuring 2 of my favourite bands from this fair Isle, Wodensthrone and The Gentleman’s Club of A Forest Of Stars.

Acolyte were the first band on that evening at the Asylum 2 and this was when I first discovered these Manchester rabble rousers. I snapped up the numbered EP on offer ‘Leng’ after they had blown me away with their live performance, and I was suitably ecstatic when I heard that the album was on the way.

Due for a May release, anyone with a love for Enslaved and Progressive Metal will adore this album in particular, with  some of the Proggier stuff which has a smack of the Mastodon’s about it on the track ‘Sunrise’ in particular, and there is a riff in ‘Vultures’ reminds me of the Atlanta behemoths.

The album features all 3 of the tracks from the EP but the other 6 besides the intro track smack you in the nose and say, listen, we have fucking arrived, a bit like a night out in Manchester.   Knob twiddler Tom Dring (Dragged Into Sunlight/Magpyes) has worked wonders with the production, so I urge you buy ‘Altra’ as it is a monster of a  debut album and hopefully the start of even greater things for the band.