Mom and dad are fighting again. It's been a tough time on the Terminus homestead with regards to scheduling, TDMG waylaid from recording earlier by the insidious trickery of budget airlines. Perhaps a cooling-off period was needed, though, before recording what is perhaps the most contentious episode in Terminus history. Blood must be shed. There is no other path forward. The cause of such discord within the family? The long-awaited return of Cromlech, epic doom purveyors with close ties to the podcast. "Ascent of Kings," a record a decade in the making, is without question one of the single most ambitious albums we've ever covered on the show. Epic in scope, scale, and concept, Cromlech pulls on threads of epic doom, traditional heavy metal, and those genres' progressive rock ancestors to make a record as unwieldy as it is grandiose. The question is simple: does Cromlech stick the landing, or is the sheer weight of compositional intricacy too much to bear? The battle lines are drawn and the positions the hosts take may surprise you, but one thing is clear once the dust has settled: "Ascent of Kings" will undoubtedly be a cult smash hit for a certain audience, and it is a record which necessitates tremendous discussion, whatever your position might be. Following this is another album with tremendous ambitions, albeit in a radically different direction: the debut full-length by Haxprocess, Jacksonville progressive death metal band and friends of The Death Metal Guy. Haxprocess sets its sights on recreating the style of late 90s progressive death metal, closely hewing to the structural rigor of deathrash while also heavily invested in the psych and prog rock of yesteryear. Through careful recreation of that era's stylistic features but with a genuine charge of youthful spirit and creativity, this is a record which could easily have emerged from '98, but with an energy and soul all its own. 0:00:00 - Intro 0:07:12 - Cromlech - Ascent of Kings (Hessian Firm) 1:51:24 - Virgin Steele - “Through the Ring of Fire” fr. The House of Atreus - Act I (T&T Records, 1999) 1:56:49 - Haxprocess - The Caverns of Duat (Independent / CD on Witches Brew) 2:49:39 - Outro - Burning Inside - “Apparition” fr. Apparition (Crash Music, 2001) Terminus links:Terminus on YoutubeTerminus on PatreonTerminus on InstagramTerminus on [email protected]