If your daily morning routine includes running a razor over your scalp and measuring your biceps, read on. Ancestral Legacy are not out on a my-blood-is purer-than-thou social work mission to save white babies, but are a gothic doom project, utilising an exhausted male-growls-alternated-with-heavenly-female-voice motif. (Are there any bands out there headed by a female growler paired with a male opera singer, or at least one competent on clean vox? Hearing a bass or baritone instead of a soprano would be a welcome change and an interesting inversion of the status quo.)

This EP was mixed and mastered by Knut Magne Valle, best known as a member of the delightfully eclectic Arcturus. The band is currently seeking a label to release their full-length album _Nightmare Diaries_, recorded at the same sessions as this _Trapped Within the Words_ EP. Their last recording was in 2004, hence the need to stir up interest in the band -- or rather, attempt to stir up interest: their well trodden formula offers insufficient novelty to entice listeners raised on a diet of Dismal Euphony, never mind the umpteen black metal bands with siren voiced guests. Their most entertaining number is the most atypical, a Celtic folk instrumental that closes the EP. To summarise, they have a great vocalist, good sound, competent musicians -- but they just don't stand out from the crowd.