Thoughtful is a good way to describe the approach of Anciients, whose third album this is and the first since “Voice of the Void” in 2016. Since then real-life events, the pandemic and line-up changes have intervened, but now this acclaimed progressive metal band is ready to go again.

“Forbidden Sanctuary” starts off proceedings and gives confirmation that this could be a seriously good band with a strong sense of song structure. Laid back but sophisticated metal is the backing to this melodic song. The vocals are initially languid, switching to growls. The song heads off into a delightful and later a heavy instrumental passage. It’s easy to see why Anciients are mentioned in the same breath as Opeth. “Forbidden Sanctuary” is like a mini-work but one which has a natural progression and is all the more pleasing for it. “Despoiled” has the theme of people living without hope. The theme is reflected in the sombre harshness of the song. It’s progressive death metal but not really with any twists or turns. “Is It Your God”, they then ask. The pained instrumentals match the bleak lyrics. The last part of the song consists of a solo. The vocalist’s dreamy delivery has a haunting but also soporific effect. As if the band decides there needs to be some action, the final section is upbeat and decidedly prog in expression. I understand that the song was conveying a mood but until the end I just found this too downbeat in tone.

But this is how it continues to be, as whilst the guitarists play pretty and heavy patterns, “Melt the Crown” has the same monotone quality about it. I can’t fault the technical side of it and the song works through a number of styles and passages, but there’s very little spirit. The song is about regicide so I guess it was never going to be bright and breezy. “Cloak of the Vast and Black” is straight out of the book of Opeth but not as good. I sense that excitement is being whipped up but it doesn’t work. More black clouds characterise the subject of “Celestial Tyrant”. The drum and guitar line is upbeat and has energy but again I just felt it was like a technical juggernaut without a purpose. Chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga …. away we go into the languid “Beyond Our Minds”. The vocalist’s expression borders on whining. There is a nice guitar solo, I have to say. “The Torch” has an air of progressive death n roll about it and livens up further towards the end. Even this follows a certain set pattern and I struggled to find anything special about it. The instrumental “Candescence” finally had some much-needed drama before “In the Absence of Wisdom” brings this uninspiring album to a close. The song has the familiar pattern: it all gets drowned in the steady, not quite pedestrian rhythm which itself is fine, but the progression lacks energy and the vocals are too dreamy. An Opeth-like divergence towards the end brings an extra dimension but there was never any danger of my juices being stirred.

The first couple of songs were fine but after that the production mix and languid delivery strangled this album. As a result it largely lacks life and spirit. A laid-back quality can be good but not for the best part of an hour. It’s almost as if Anciients have come up with good technical ideas but don’t know how to exploit them. The album should grab me and pull me along but whilst I appreciated the playing technique, which undoubtedly does justice to the progressive death metal genre, I just felt I was some distance away while listening to this. For me, “Beyond the Reach of the Sun” has plenty of technical merit but as presented, was just hard work to listen to.

(5/10 Andrew Doherty)

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https://anciientriffs.bandcamp.com/album/beyond-the-reach-of-the-sun