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"Proxima Centauri" Ancient |
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Within the bowels
of the Black Metal genre there are still those worthy of elite status…
those few who can reinvent themselves, rise up from the core, the cluttered
junk of redundancy housed in Death grunts and hollow chants, chimes and
under worldly chirps, where poor mixing clouds the covenant and where
songs rather than being an hour-long blood-let of narrowed focus give
way to a new range of dynamics and assumptions of Ancient, perhaps with an unlikely ascension considering their tumultuous surroundings, will apparently not be denied their date with destiny. "Proxima Centauri" is a superior display of high speed firepower and carefully engrained melodies, classically-inspired but never drowned for more than a moment, theirs is an ongoing, ever changing and challenging listen in what should be the precursor to the bands' tenth anniversary soon to be commemorated for the world's stage. While an asterisk
might be aptly applied to such a date considering incessant entry/exit The bowels of Hell,
revisited and on display for all to see and hear, Ancient's future
certainly lies not in their past but with this current assembly, veterans
of Neptune's school of philosophic discourse, strength of riff, full and
complete soundscapes and deadly Necrophobia is immediate
in what amounts to their most complete songwriting contribution, often
highlighted by the disturbing female voice, enter Deadly Kristin, pretty
and poison all in one sweep of the cape, hers, presumably a wardrobe sale
item from the Graveyard Discounters midnight fire sale, frighteningly
clever in her light-switching vocal exploits making for some of the most
diverse works ever in the bands' history, summed up well if only for one
example, "Beyond The Realms of Insanity," a slow moving,
evil incarnate calm before an instrumental storm that enters, destroys,
then slowly moves And yet there are so many other reasons to bask in this glorious return for the band, none more so telling than their lyrical monuments. In what amounts to their most advanced release to date, theirs is a family portrait of bizarre proportions that seems destined to haunt us far longer than we ever had the right to expect. Released by Metal
Blade Records GmbH, P.O. Box 1332, 73054 Eislingen, Germany. Review by Vinnie Apicella [va85@columbia.edu]
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