Over three years ago I first became aware of Vancouver’s own Anciients by virtue of reading the review of ‘Heart of Oak’ on the very site your are currently viewing (check Ave Noctum passim), and in the intervening three years the band has undoubtedly been practising hard, such is the technical proficiency on show in this follow up ‘Voice of the Void’. ‘Following The Voice’ opens the album in a suitably frenetic fashion, the complex interweaving riffs, technical beats, and alternately harsh and harmonised vocals immediately invoking comparisons to the likes of Mastodon, the similarities crashing and crushing straight to the fore. This comparison continues into the ten minute plus Opeth, sorry, I meant “opus” that is the second track of the album ‘Buried In Sand’, a track that is dripping with technical wizardry that would have even the afore alluded to Mr Åkerfeldt stroking his moustache in appreciation.
Anciients continue with their dedication to the heavier side of the progressive with ‘Worshipper’, another near ten minute musical journey that ebbs and flows from the gallopingly brutal to the slow and drawn out, with an impressive ‘look at how technical I can be’ guitar solo thrown in somewhere mid point. Flashes of the extreme are thrown into the mix on the altogether punchier ‘Pentacle’, the vocals remaining just on the periphery of the unintelligible black metal growl, whilst the gentler, non metallic Prog leanings of the band are displayed in the short, simple instrumental number ‘Descending’ a track that I felt must have been named after some clever musical scale rather than anything more spiritual.
Normal service resumes with ‘Ibex Eye’, the same roller-coaster ride of changing tempos and pitch shifts continuing unabated as the band pound the listener with a barrage of technical wizardry, the song strangely fading out at the end rather than having a definite finish as if the band couldn’t help but continue to play until their considerable energy finally wore out, or the hard drive they were recording onto was maxed out, and a number that was originally hours long was trimmed down to a mere ten minutes in the final edit.
If Opeth’s more laid back latest release had you raging, and not in a good way, or maybe you dislike the humour that Heavy Devy brings to Progressive Metal, in ‘Voice of the Void’ Anciients may well have provided the album you have been waiting for to tide you through until Mastodon next produce the goods. Personally, like the scribe that reviewed their prior release on Ave Noctum, I feel that it does sound a little like the band are throwing a bit too much into each track and are tending to bury their undoubted ability under an unnecessary layer of techniques that seem to be thrown in just to dazzle the listener. Undoubtedly, it is an album I prefer to their first, and there is a hell of a lot of musical skill on display; it just seems to sound a little lost and in search of a unique identity to bring the band to the next level.
(6.5/10 Spenny)
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