Ascend

After nearly twenty years participating in the American underground doom/drone milieu, vocalist Gentry Densley of Iceburn, Eagle Twin, and related projects joined guitarist Greg Anderson—associated with Goatsnake, Sunn 0))), Burning Witch, and other endeavors—to establish the collaborative project Ascend. Their first opportunity materialized with the 2008 Southern Lord-released album Ample Fire Within, at which point the pair enlisted numerous like-minded musicians, among them Void guitarist Bubba Dupree, former Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil, and Earth organist and trombone player Stebmo, to realize an unconventional conception of rumbling drone epics shaped by a jazz fusion outlook.