The Awakening have been around for quite some time. Led by Ashton Nyte, who also has an impressive solo output, The Awakening are the quintessential gothic band. I chose to review one of their older albums because it was the first one that I purchased by them. Ethereal Menace came out in 1999 and was a glorious mix of gothic, doom, dance and industrial. Nyte’s vocals are heavy but crisp, and his extremely deep voice compliments the dark emotion of the music. Nyte’s singing bleeds through while running the gamut from haunting and angry, to mournful and elegantly sad. The guitar work here is atmospheric, driving and powerful as it sets the stage for the industrial style bass and drums. Nyte is a one man machine as he has played most, and sometimes all, of the music on most of his albums. This one he wrote, engineered and produced by himself. To date The Awakening have released 8 full length records, one record of favorites/hits and Ashton has released numerous solo records as well. Originally hailing from South Africa, and after 14 years in the business, their latest record Tales Of Absolution and Obsoletion should be checked out as well.
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