Ashbury United States

""Endless Skies" is the legendary 1983 release by American rock act Ashbury. While essentially not part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, it is sometimes associated with that movement, probably because of the time at which it was released, which just coincided with the tail end of the NWoBHM.

Musically, "Endless Skies" offers 50% hard rock / heavy metal and 50% acoustically oriented rock with a slight hint of progressive influence. Still, it outsold releases by even established metal and hard rock acts on the charts at the time. To be honest, I think that "Endless Skies" is an overrated album. There is some good stuff on it, to be sure; for instance the hard rocking track "Vengeance" is brilliant and reminds me a bit of "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" era Sabbath and 80s Jethro Tull (the vocals are generally very much like Ian Anderso's singing-9. "The Warning", albeit less inspiring, is also a fine hard rocker, while the acoustic tracks "Twilight" and "Endles Skies" are very beautiful. The rest of the tracks are okay, but the do not quite do it for me.

I think that perhaps one problem is that the vocals are way too loud in the mix compared to the instrumentation which is, to put it mildly, quit eannoying.

I think that this album will appeal to fans of hard rock in general, and if you like acoustic rock, you might like it to. I think that fans of 90s alternative rock might actually like it too.

(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"