Before they saw their new album to the finish line, Anciients had to climb an awfully rocky mountain. It might be hard to believe, but a global pandemic wasn’t the only obstacle that stood in the Canadian band’s path after winning a JUNO Award. They had to navigate multiple line-up changes, serious health complications and newfound fatherhood. But at last, the heavy, heady and heartfelt Canucks have returned to the summit of progressive metal with Beyond the Reach of the Sun.
The album’s new single is plenty crushing, but “In the Absence of Wisdom” radiates with hard-earned perseverance.
“The hiatus is over” says frontman Kenny Cook. “We’re ready to hit it hard”.
Watch the eye-opening visualizer for “In the Absence of Wisdom”
Beyond the Reach of the Sun comes out August 30, 2024 on Season of Mist.
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https://orcd.co/anciientsbeyondthereachofthesun
Can’t wait any longer for the return of Anciients? RSVP for their Bandcamp Listening Party and listen to all 10 mind-blowing tracks off their new album before anyone else!
Bandcamp Listening Party
Thursday, August 15 @ 7 pm Pacific Time
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By the time we arrive at “In the Absence of Wisdom”, the story behind Beyond the Reach of the Sun appears to have already reached its pointed conclusion. The shadowy galactic forces that enslaved society on the album’s first two singles have been vanquished. The sun has returned to its vaulted place in the sky. Light and balance have been restored to the universe. All is well. Or so it seems…
“In the Absence of Wisdom” is the closing statement on Beyond the Reach of the Sun, which makes it stand out as an ominous coda. After all, Anciients didn’t spend the last eight years soul searching through the Canadian wilderness just so they could wrap up their long-awaited new album with a big kumbaya. A bluesy guitar intro unravels like a cry in the dark before Cook and his new axe man Brock MacInnes (Dead Quiet) are locked back into a classic headbanging riff.
“We awaken“, Cook sings, shrouded in reverb. “No one left to guide us through“.
“In the Absence of Wisdom” does build to a grand finale in due time. But the song revolves around a gloomy conceptual framework. “I was thinking about all the times we as humans have failed to learn from the mistakes of everyone who’s come and gone before us”, Cook explains. “Making the same decisions over and over again in hopes of finally experiencing a breakthrough just leaves you caught in a viscous cycle”.
The pandemic didn’t help, but Beyond the Reach of the Sun had already been delayed long before COVID-19 prevented them from performing outside Canada for two-plus years (and counting). Cook’s wife nearly passed away from heart complications after giving birth to their first child. “They’re happy and healthy now”, the grizzled frontman ensures, “but it was a bit of a road”.
As if that wasn’t enough weight for one metalhead to carry, Anciients were hit with a last-minute hurdle. A month before the band was all set to hunker down at Rain City Recorders, suddenly, they found themselves in search of a new bass player. Fortunately, Justin Hagberg, who plays the soft glowing keyboard on “In the Absence of Wisdom”, showed them Bushwhacker’s sure-handed bassist Rory O’Brien.
“We got lucky and Rory saved our asses at the last minute”, Cook says.
The journey wasn’t without plenty of pitfalls, but in the end, Beyond the Reach of the Sun is a testament to Anciients’ perseverance. “At its core, this album is all about overcoming adversity in order to seek enlightenment”, Cook says. “In the Absence of Wisdom” concludes with the fiercest and most fiery of its three guitar solos, the flaming hammer-ons fanned higher and higher by drummer Mike Hannay’s thunderous toms.
“We are now the demons”, Cook warns, “Following the footsteps / Of the ones we hate”. His growl is deadlier than ever, but it’s a prophecy from a band that’s lived to tell the tale.
The images in the visualizer for “In the Absence of Wisdom” were created by Martin Stebbing and Alison Lilly.
More Praise for Anciients
“Heady stuff…arch-synthesists, cleverly appropriating a number of familiar, inter-related genres to fuse into a seamless ethos” – Metal Injection
“Proggy, sludgy and downright rocking” – Angry Metal Guy
“When the riffs rumble out of the speakers, you’re moving” – No Clean Singing
“Combining powerful drumming with Thin Lizzy inspired riffs, while sounding like the musical equivalent of Game of Thrones” – Echoes and Dust
“Parts progressive finesse, classic rock grandstanding and grass-roots bludgeon” – PopMatters
